


Percy Jackson and Avengers Crossover :)

by definitely_not_loki



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Fanfiction, Gen, im not loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25403440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/definitely_not_loki/pseuds/definitely_not_loki
Summary: Percy is the last standing out of the seven after the war against Gaea. After promised a month of free time, he visits home but gets sidetracked after an unexpected happening...The Avengers are after a kid, Perseus Jackson. Told to be one of the most dangerous teens out there. Ordered to detain him, they bring the mourning Percy Jackson into their tower, but they can't help but feel something is off about the kid...TRIGGER WARNING! Torture, small abuse and self-harm mentions, depressed tendencies, panic attacks.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso & Leo Valdez, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Percy Jackson/Loki (Marvel), Thalia Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Comments: 14
Kudos: 176





	1. Summary

Narrated to you by your very own Seaweed Brain

Blood. Death. Blood and death. SO MUCH BLOOD AND DEATH. That's a cheery start, don't you think?

I'm Percy Jackson. Well, Perseus Jackson, if you want to get all technical. For some reason I don't have a middle name? Don't know why though. *shrugs*

Okay then, back to the summary. Stupid ADHD is acting up. When doesn't it though.

SUMMARY! That's what we're doing. Right.

The Giant war didn't end too well. Here's a quick summary for you:

It all started off well, Reyna and Nico brought the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, camp accepted. It was all good. We appeared, the seven that is, and Gaea came up and attacked us all. Romans and Greeks, fighting together! It was all great! We were all great!

...that is, before the first death. If I remember correctly, which, why would I say that? I can clearly remember when Hazel's scream of pain pierced the air. I turned sharply, decapitating a Hell hound as I did so. Hazel was there, Frank helping her lie down, trying to treat the stab wound on her stomach. It was fatal, and none of us has ambrosia or nectar on us. We couldn't do anything about it. .

I remember starting to walk towards her when I was intercepted by Kelli. She bared her teeth and hissed "I will be the one to kill Perseus Jackson!" Then I cut her in half and she exploded into gold dust. She's really starting to slack off! It used to take me waayyy longer to beat her!

I continued on my desperate trek to Hazel and Frank, but i was too late. Frank was already sobbing, hunched over Hazel's lifeless form. I was too late.

I pried Frank off Hazel, and gave him a super inspirational speech about how Hazel would want us to keep fighting. Eventually we ran back into the battle, when I saw a FREAKING METAL DRAGON fly through the air from the forest. And get this, LEO was riding on its back. WHAT WAS HAPPENING. I later found out this was Festus, just with his whole body. I would've figured that out on the battlefield, but I guess I was too busy fighting stuff. Leo steered Festus towards Jason and Piper and they flew into the air... bringing Gaea with them?

I then was making my way to where Annabeth was kicking butt, when I saw a screaming fireball sounding suspiciously like Octavian flying through the air, right at Leo, Jason, and Piper. Then there was an explosion and Festus was gone, Leo gone with him. But hey, Gaea was gone! Then there was Jason and Piper. Jason was badly burned and knocked out from the explosion, and he was carrying Piper with him. They were free falling and there was nothing to stop them.

I ran to where I thought they would land, killing monsters on my way. When I got to them, I saw Jason, burnt and bleeding, dead. Piper was still breathing, but it was shallow. She tried to ask me something.

"Gaea... is... did we get her?... is she... gone?"

"Yes. We got her. It was all thanks to you and Leo and Jason! You-" my voice cracked, "You saved us."

She smiled weakly, planted a kiss on Jason's dead body, and closed her eyes. Dead.

I wanted to scream. It was only Me, Annabeth, and Frank left. I had done this. It was my fault. I turned sharply, sweeping my eyes over the war zone, searching for Annabeth. I saw her, surrounded by monsters. She was holding her own, but she was hopelessly outnumbered.

"Percy!" I turned and saw Frank running at me.

"Yeah Frank? Join me, we're going this way. To Annabeth."

"Percy! Where's Leo? Jason, Piper? Are they..."

I continued fighting the monsters, killing one after the other, not answering his unasked question.

"Oh. Percy. What-" Frank stopped all of a sudden, clutching his chest.

"FRANK?" I yelled, "Buddy, talk to me, what's wrong?" I ask when I find no wound.

"My... My lifeline. Someone must've-" he gasped again, "Percy... If I don't... make it out of this..." He was wincing and collapsed.

"FRANK. Please..." It was obvious he wasn't going to make it out of this.

"...thank you. For everything... you're my *gasp* best friend. I... I want this. I can... I can see Hazel again... my mom... grandmother..." His eyes glazed over, and he lied there. Another dead. On my watch.

I kept fighting, and made my way to Annabeth. There she was, looking beautiful as ever while she violently chopped the head of yet another hellhound (how many of those were there?) and turned to a basilisk.

We fought back to back for a good amount of time, and I really thought we would make it out of there together. We beat Tartarus, why can't we do this? Gaea was already gone, it was just the monsters we had to get. Everything was looking forward, and as I slayed the last of the telekhines, I turned to Annabeth.

"We did it."

"We did it." We looked at each other, blood smeared all over both our faces, and we smiled. We had done it. And as we were leaning in to kiss, Annabeth gasped, a spear through her back, going straight through to the front of her stomach.

"ANNABETH!!!" I screamed, "Annabeth, no. WE WON! Annabeth, we won." I looked around frantically for a medic.

"Percy..." I heard her soft whimper, and looked at her. She was deathly pale, blood seeping through her orange shirt, "Percy, I love you..."

"No. NO. Don't say that. You're going to make it out of this... you need to. I need you. We were going to go to college together, live together, get married. Have kids, grow old, then. Then we'd die!"

"Percy... You and I both know I'm-" she gasped for air, "I'm not going to make it out of this... Percy, I'll wait for you... in Elysium... but I want to hear all about your amazing life when you join me..." she was closing her eyes, "I love you Percy... I love you so much..."

And she was gone.

I placed a kiss on her lips, the last one I'd ever get from my Wise Girl. Then I stood and turned around.

I scanned the crowd for the thing that had thrown the spear. My eyes landed on a Roman running the other way.

Oh. No. You. DON'T. I thought as I ran at full speed to said traitor. I reached him, spun him around, punched him in the face, lifted him by his collar and growled in his face, "Do you know what I'm going to do to you?"

He visibly gulped. "I'm going to kill you. You know why? You killed my Annabeth. She is dead, because of you. Then again," I paused, "I don't know if you're worth my time. No, you're not. I'm going to hand you over to Reyna, and she's going to kill you. In front of the Legion for treason. You will be humiliated and known to all as the one who killed Annabeth. You will be hated by all. Then you will be killed." I brought him to Reyna, like I said, and threw him at her feet, explaining the whole thing to her.

Alright, I'll admit, this isn't much of a summary. But I have ADHD, what did you expect? Of course I'm going to go into detail and everything!!! And I'm still not done. This should be called "Percy Talking About The Worst Day Of His Life And It's SUPPOSED To Be A Summary But It's Too Long For That" or PTATWDOHLAISTBASBITLFT for short! Okay, that's unnecessary. Back to PTATWDOHLAISTBASBITLFT!

I was then walking to the Big House when I was teleported to Olympus. Great, JUST GREAT.

"PERSEUS JACKSON! You have saved us all, once again!" Apollo announced as soon as I had gained my bearings. Reyna and Nico were also with me, Reyna spinning on the spot, trying to look at everything at once.

"HUSH!" Zeus yelled, then turned to me, "You have saved Olympus. For this-"

"HOLD UP," I shouted, throwing my arms up to stop him, "one, don't grant me immortality, I still don't want that. And two, Leo, Jason and Piper saved us, not me."

"Ah, yes, but do you see them up here?"

My heart sunk and guilt consumed me, "No, I don't."

"Then it is you, Nico di Angelo, and Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano. No one else." Zeus then spoke to all three of the demigods. "If you will accept, I shall grant you all with immortality. You each get one wish as well."

Percy turned to Nico and Reyna, curious to what their responses would be.

"I decline," Nico stated. "I wish for..." He paused, thinking. While he was thinking Reyna spoke up, "I accept. The Legion will need a leader, and I feel I am doing my job well. If they grow tired of me, I can always join the Amazons."

With a burst of golden light, Reyna was made immortal.

"I have my wish, I wish there a portal or some sort of instantaneous form of transportation between the camps." Said Percy with finality. He would have wished for Annabeth back, but he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get that one. And he didn't know if she would want to come back. He knew if he was literally in paradise he'd want to stay.

"I wish for the stupid rule of 'the gods can't talk to their kids' be diminished." Nico wished. With a begrudging snap of Zeus's fingers, it was done.

"I wish that we are given at least 6 months of rest," Reyna announced, "I know that we had two wars in two years, and there was barely any break in between. I wish for us to have half a year off. No monster attacks, no quests, no new prophecies. Nothing. I know New Rome will need it, and I have a suspicion that Camp Half-Blood does too."

Zeus looked at her, emotionless. Then he said "I am sorry but I cannot fulfill that wish. I can grant you, 4, maybe 5 weeks at the most. It is hard work, taking control of all the monsters and making sure no quests are issued, too much for any god."

"But we've had to do that our whole lives!" I interjected. "We've had to make sure monsters don't hurt anyone, we do all the quests you gods throw at us, so why can't you do it for a puny half year?"

"YOU WILL NOT DEFY THE RULER OF OLYMPUS!" Zeus shouted, lightning flying off of him. I shut up. I know, me. Shutting up for once. But I'm pretty sure if you thought you were about to be thrown into the Fields of Punishment for the rest of your existence you would have too. "One month. That's what you get. ONE. MONTH."

"Oh, so you can grant immortality, but you can't give us a break?" Nico snapped.

Zeus growled dangerously, "Don't make me take it back demigod."

And with that he sent us back to camp.

VOILA! (look at me, using fancy words!) PTATWDOHLAISTBASBITLFT is done! Thank you, thank you very much! *bows*


	2. Chapter One

Nick Fury POV

The alarm sounded throughout the Avengers Tower and Nick looked at what was going on, and promptly spat out the coffee he was drinking. The words PERSEUS JACKSON SIGHTED were flashing across the computer screen.

He told Jarvis to tell the Avengers to meet him in the meeting room NOW. They had a terrorist to detain.

\---LINE BREAK OF BEAUTY AND AWKWARDNESS---

All the Avengers were on time. All except Tony, that is. He came in, a full 5 minutes late. 5. WHOLE. MINUTES. He was wearing sweatpants and a plain white T-shirt, drinking coffee.

"What is this about?" Tony asked, stifling a yawn.

Fury brought up Persues Jackson's file on the big computer screen.

"Your mission is to detail this kid. He is 17 years old, but he's marked as a terrorist, and I need him here asap for questioning. Bringing him back alive would be much appreciated, seeing as you can't very well interrogate a dead body." He then walked out, and closed the door.

Tony Stark POV

"Wait, so you're telling me, you woke me up at," Tony squinted at his watch. "5:45 in the morning to detain, what, a kid?"

"Well, he did blow up his school. And another school. And this bus. And kidnapped his mom. And-" Clint was cut off my Steveexclaiming "Geeze, how many dad can a kid have?"

Tony looked at the file, skimming down to the "Father" section. He had a dad reported as missing, step-dad, also reported as missing, and another step-dad, this one reported as deceased.

"Is his mom just a really hot assassin who married guys then killed them?" Tony asked, intrigued.

"Maybe she was, but his file says she's also deceased. Maybe he's the one who killed them all off? He did capture his mom once," Steve wondered.

"Perseus Jackson," Thor boomed, "That name... It sounds familiar, I just can't place it."

"Well, he was last sighted at Liberty Cemetery (A/N I just made that up) 20 minutes ago, let's go see if we can get him," said Nat, "and Tony, get suited up."

\---LINE BREAK, BROUGHT TO YOU BY *FILL IN THE BLANK*---

Percy Jackson POV

Percy had taken advantage of the one month, and visited home. He had, of course, forgotten his key. Maybe he lost it somewhere during the 8 months. That was probably it. He decided to knock, and when the door opened, he was expecting to see his mom. His beautiful mom, Sally Jackson, or was it now Sally Blofis? He didn't care. He didn't care if Paul answered the door, he just wanted to see one of them.  
But instead a grumpy teenager wearing a hoodie and Avenger pajama pants answered.

"What... What..." Percy stumbled back. "Where's my mom? Where's Sally Jackson?"

"How should I know. But what i do know, buddy," he shoved Percy back a bit, "is that it is Five. in the effing. Morning. I don't know who you are, but unless you're an angel from God giving me a bunch of money for my college tuition, go away. NOW." The teen was definitely not his mom, and Percy didn't know what happened, but it was obvious that she didn't live here anymore.

"WAIT!" Percy yelled, "What about the people who lived here before? Sally jackson and Paul Blofis???"

"Died. Murdered. That's what I like about it. There's a smell of death in the air." and with that he shut the door in Percy's face.

\---LINE BREAK REMINDING YOU TO NOT DIE---

Percy made his way down to the front desk of the apartment building. He needed to know what was happening. They couldn't... no... not them... they were all he had left... no... please... it can't be true... no. He was breathing heavily, his vision going blurry.

"SALLY JACKSON! I need... I need to know what happened." Percy gasped, running to the desk. The person behind the computer looked at him weirdly. "Sorry?" He asked.

"Sally Jackson. She used to live here. What hap- what happened?" His voice caught in his throat. He was still breathing unsteadily. They can't be dead. Please. No. No. Please.

"Sally Jackson... murdered in room 113? That was just a week ago. I was surprised how quickly they shut down the case and sold it to some emo kid-" The secretary was cut off by Percy running away. He needed to get away. Now. The cemetery, he thought. Annabeth... I can go by her. She'll make me calm.

He sprinted out of the apartment, and down several blocks to Liberty Cemetery. He ran to the six newly added graves. "Annabeth" He whispered, out of breath.

He knelt in front of her grave and just sat there for several minutes, trying to calm his breathing. Use the technique Annabeth showed you. In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through- His thoughts were disrupted by the sudden rustling of leaves behind him.

He stood and turned sharply. 6 people. Well, 5 and one god. He felt them, four on land, one in the sky, and one in a nearby tree.

"Um... Hey. Yeah. Uh, I'm pretty sure it's not very nice to interrupt someone mourning. Unless you're here to mourn for someone yourself but seeing as you're all hiding in a forest watching me, I'm going to guess that's not what you're doing." Percy announced, taking out riptide. You never know, maybe they're looking for a fight.

Then the four on the ground walked out and the guy in the air flew down.

There was a guy dressed as an American Flag, a girl dressed in a skin-tight and uncomfortable looking body-suit, a guy wearing jeans and a T-shirt, a god with stupidly long hair, and a guy wearing all metal. Well crap, he thought, I've just managed to get the attention of the Avengers.


	3. Chapter Two

Percy Jackson POV

"So... What do the Avengers want with me?" Percy starts out awkwardly, seeing they weren't going to talk.

"Perseus Jackson?" Black Widow 'at least, I think it's Black Widow.' called out. Percy tensed when they used his full name, as the only ones who called him 'Perseus' were monsters that were trying to kill him.

"That's my name. What do you guys want." He didn't want to be polite anymore.

"You need to come with us." Captain America said.

"Mmm hmmm is that so. And why would I do that? And isn't there supposed to be another one of you guys? Like, the arrow dude?"

"If you don't come willingly we will have to use force." Iron Man yelled.

"Alright then, have fun!" Percy uncapped riptide and it grew to its full length. He readied his sword and awaited their attack. Then an arrow came straight towards his face. He caught it in mid air and the fight was on. (A/N and I suck at action scenes so HAVE FUN CRINGING!)

Captain America was the first to move, throwing his shield at Percy. He caught that too, but discarded the arrow first. He was about to throw the shield back, but a beam of pure light energy was blasted at him by Iron man. He blocked it with the shield, then threw it as hard as he could (which was really hard) at Iron man, knocking him out of the air and into the forest. Then another arrow was aimed at his leg, and he dodged, but came face-to-face with Black Widow herself.

"Just to let you know, you were always my friends' favorite," Percy told her, talking about Piper and Annabeth. They loved how awesome she was, no powers, a girl, and a superhero.

"Tell them I said thanks," Black Widow said, aiming a punch at Percy's side and a kick at his feet. He jumped and blocked her punch, telling her in turn "Can't, they're..." He trailed off, thinking about his friends. His lovely Annabeth, her beautiful curled blonde hair and amazing grey eyes. The fear and sadness in her eyes when she died. She died. Because of him.

A punch to the face brought him back to reality, sending him to the ground.

"HEY! That wasn't very nice!" Percy yelled as he got back up, punching Black Widow in the side and knocking out with a hit of the hilt of his sword on the back of her head. Then yet another arrow flew at his face. He once again dodged it, and went back to the fight.

Iron man was just making his way back to the fight, Captain America, Thor, and the arrow dude, Hawkeye?, were still in the fight. Oh yeah, also the Hulk guy, who was just standing there awkwardly. Maybe waiting for something?

He had just turned to Thor, when the shield of America came barreling at him. Again. Gosh, this writer is really bad at writing these kind of scenes! *Frantically tries to fix the fourth wall*

He tried to dodge, but as soon as he leaned to one side, an arrow came straight at him. It ran into his arm. Youch. He pulled it out, but stared feeling dizzy. He threw a badly aimed swipe at Thor with his sword, and promptly fell over, passed out.

\---LINE BREAK OF APOLOGIES FOR THAT AWFUL FIGHT SCENE---

Bruce POV

Well, the kid can fight. Not as good as us of course, but he can fight well enough. He took out Natasha, so that says something.

They had just brought him in, and were calling Fury now.

The kid was currently locked in an interrogation room. After his arm was treated, though. Bruce just wouldn't allow them to lock him up before he could heal him. He couldn't have the kid die on them. Well, maybe not die, but maybe lose an arm?

"Where is he." Fury demanded as soon as he arrived. They all pointed out the one-way-mirror they were all standing behind where the boy was clearly presented.

Fury looked at him, passed out and locked to a metal chair and looked back at the Avengers. "I want Natasha to go in first, question him and try to get information. Then Bruce. You test his mental health. Steve go in and try and get personal. Ask about his family and friends, see if we get anything. I'll have you three," he pointed at Clint, Tony, and Thor, "interrogate him more if need be."

At that moment, Perseus Jackson woke up.

Percy Jackson POV

Percy woke up, left arm aching. He tried to move it, and found it to be strapped down. His eyes flew open right away, panic clouding his brain. He looked around, and upon finding the rest of him also strapped down to a metal chair in the middle of an interrogation room, his panic increased. His breath sped up, his heart was pounding, and he started fighting against the chains.

The door then opened and Black Widow stood in the doorway. She walked to the table in front of him and took a seat. Percy was still struggling. He needed to get out. Now. They were going to hurt him, and if they were going to hurt him, they'd hurt Annabeth. He needed to get to her, now. Before anything happens. NOW. He faintly heard Black Widow shouting for someone or something, but couldn't be too bothered to pay any attention. He needed to get to Annabeth. Before they get to her. Not this. Not again. Gods, please not again.

Natasha POV

She wasn't necessarily surprised when Perseus started straining in his seat, but she saw it as more than just struggling when it went from tugging to using every last ounce of his strength pulling and labored breathing.

"Bruce! Get in here!" She knew Perseus was panicking, but she had no clue what to do. Bruce came in and went to unlock the boy. "Bruce! Do you really think that's the best idea?"

Bruce just glanced her way and unlocked the chains. Instantly, Perseus was on his feet and running to the door. Bruce had, luckily, locked the door behind him. But that also meant they had a panicked terrorist on their hands. Perseus turned towards them, sizing them up, searching them for weapons.

Bruce slowly raised his hands, and Nat grudgingly did the same. This obviously calmed the kid down, but he was still pressing his hands on the door, as if wishing that if he pushed hard enough it would magically open.

"Hey... Kid? Listen. We aren't going to hurt you, not unless we must. We just need to ask you some questions." Bruce spoke clearly, directing his words to Perseus.

This made him leave the door, though his eyes darted in between him and Natasha. He sat down, and Bruce left. Okay Natasha, time for questions.

"What is your name?" She asked.

"Like you don't already know," he snorted.

"I want to hear it from you."

"Percy Jackson. Don't call me Perseus or I will cause you bodily harm."

"Who do you work for?"

The kid - Percy - frowned, "I don't work for anyone. I was going to apply for that ice cream parlor down the road, but-"

"I don't believe you."

Percy stared at her, and asked "well then, what was the answer you were looking for?"

"A terrorist group name would be useful."

To this, the kid burst out laughing. "ME? A terrorist? Yeah, that's funny. Wow."

Nat was frustrated by this outburst. This kid has no respect. He shouldn't be laughing at the thought of terrorism. Well, seeing as he is one and he is probably insane, it guess he has a slight alibi?

"Fine. Then what about your disappearance this year?"

Percy's smile faltered as he stated "Crazy aunt kidnapped me and I got amnesia."

"What were you doing in Europe?"

"Field trip."

"In the middle of July?"

He flushed, "Summer school?"

Natasha sighed and walked out. She patted Bruce's Shoulder as she passed, wishing him luck.

Bruce POV

When he walked in, Bruce instantly noticed how Percy's eyes darted everywhere, just as they had done with the earlier incident. Also how his leg bounced and his fingers fiddled with a pen. Hadn't they taken that pen away from him? And wasn't it a sword? Bruce shook his head, ridding himself of all the thought.

"So, Percy. I'm Bruce, and I'm going to be checking up of your mental health. Later we'll do a full check up, seeing as you haven't had one of those since..." Hie skimmed the file he was holding. His eyes bulged. "Since you were TWELVE???"

"Yeah, I've been busy..." Percy looked around anxiously. Obviously the thought of having a check up makes him nervous, it usually makes anyone nervous.

"We'll do that later. Right now, what I'm going to do is quickly check your metal health. When I say something, say the first word that pops into mind. No hesitation. Ready?" Percy nodded.

"Book"

He smiled slightly, "Wise girl"

"Family"

"Complicated"

"Friends"

"Gone"

"Red"

"Blood"

"Blue"

"Cookies"

"Day"

"Chariot" (A/N Because sun=Apollo=sun chariot=chariot)

"Night"

"Tar- Dreams"

"Thank you Percy. We'll have Steve come in soon."

Steve POV

"He's all yours," Fury says, sending me into the room. He had noticed how the kid's green eyes were broken. That... wasn't something you usually find in teenagers. You usually see that in soldiers. Not that there weren't exceptions, maybe he had experienced something really traumatic?

"So, I'm Steve. How are you?" Yes, that was a good start. Except apparently not good enough to fool Percy.

"Feeling kidnapped and interrogated. What do you really want to know?" Percy looked too exasperated to even care at this point. I don't blame him.

"Listen, kid-"

"I'm not a kid."

"Well, are you over 18?"

"No, but-"

"Then you're a kid."

"I stopped being a kid long ago."

"What happened?"

He tensed and asked, "I still don't really understand why I'm here. Why am I here?" Dodging the question.

"For terrorism. What happened to your dad?

"Lost at sea. You guys really think I'm a terrorist?"

"What about your step dad? And yes, we do."

"Which one? Also, that's stupid. What have I done?"

"Either one. And you've blown up multiple things, jumped off the St. Louis Arch after blowing that up, kidnapped your mom, and lots of other stuff I can't remember."

"First one went missing, second one-" his voice cracked, "I don't know. I came back from my summer caaaaaaaaaa... school field trip and found them dead. Also, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"So you're telling me you were in the wrong place at the wrong time for all of these events?

"Yep. Can I go home now?"

"Where? You just got home from a field trip, and your apartment has been sold. You don't have anywhere to go." Percy got real quiet after this.

"I've got places. I have friends that will let me in."

"I think I have enough information. See ya' around kid."

\---LINE BREAK DEDICATED TO ALL YOU GUYS FOR STILL READING THIS CRAP---

"I want him to join the Avengers," Fury stated after they had all moved to the meeting room. There were instant protests from every one of them.

"LISTEN! This way, if he's a terrorist, we'll be able to watch him and make sure he doesn't get away or blow stuff up. If he isn't, the kid will have a place to stay and will get to be a superhero. If he declines, we'll just make him."

They all processed that, and then nodded. It made sense. Either way, it was a win for them.

\---LINE BREAK OF BLUE COOKIES---

Percy Jackson POV

Percy was left in the interrogation room for what felt like YEARS and YEARS but if he was being honest with himself, he probably won't die in there from starvation or dehydration and it had only been a few minutes since Steve had left.

What felt like several thousands of years later, a guy with an eye patch walked in. He sat down at the table, and the Avengers filed in. Then the eye patch dude declared: "We want you to join the Avengers Initiative."


	4. Chapter Three

Percy POV

"Wait wait wait wait wait... so you're telling me that the guys who just fought, kidnapped, and then interrogated me are saying they want me on their team of superheroes?" Percy explained, unconvinced.

"Yes. If you decline, I am afraid we will have to force you," eye patch dude mentioned.

"Oh, so is this about the fact that you guys seem to think I'm a terrorist?"

"We need to keep our eyes on you."

"You mean eye?" To this, the pirate guy growled in frustration.

"You get to be a superhero," Iron man, or Tony Stark, exclaimed, interrupting the banter between Percy and Mr. Pirate, "did we tell you that? You get to save the world!"

Percy held back the urge to go "Been there done that. I'M A FREAKING HERO ALREADY MAN" and walk out of there flipping them all off. It made him smirk a bit just thinking about it. Unfortunately, the Avengers took this as "That sounds like a lot of fun! Let me go and save the world in an uncomfortable suit!"

"So... you'll join us?" Hawkeye asked, uncertainly.

"I don't think I have any other choice. You said you'd force me if I don't? Well, last time you had to force me to do something you guys won, and I don't want to get another arrow to the forearm."

"Well then, Perseus Jackson, welcome to the team."

\---LINE BREAK: DEDICATED TO THE BEST SHIP OUT THERE, *fill in the blank*---

Tony gave Percy a tour of the tower, pointing out where the bathrooms are, the training room, and, thankfully, there was a pool.

"Here's your room," Tony said as he opened a door, "It's usually a guest bedroom, but I guess it's yours now. You can do whatever you want with it, but if you bring a girl over-"

"I don't have a girlfriend," Percy said sharply. He didn't want to think about that right now. He was just really irritated by the fact that this was supposed to be his break. He was supposed to be spending time with his friends, rebuilding the damage to the camps, getting time off.

"Well, you might get one while you're living here," Tony replied.

"I'm not going to."

"Oh..." Tony paused, "If you have a boyfriend-"

"I don't have any special someone. I don't want anyone."

"Okay, okay. Just saying, if you have someone, ever, you guys either need to get separate rooms or lock and put a KEEP OUT sign on the door."

Percy rolled his eyes, and looked into his room. It was amazing, a mixture of gray and blue. Gray walls, just a shade darker than Annabeth's eyes, blue sheets and a blue rug. "I love it," Percy whispered.

"Pepper said it was a nice combination of colors," Tony said, shrugging, "If you come this way I'll show you the kitchen."

Percy followed, and when they got to the kitchen a voice rang out through the room. "Sir, the pizza you ordered is here."

Percy spun around, searching for the body that belonged to the voice, pulling out riptide in pen form. He heard Tony go "thanks Jarvis!" and Percy asked him WHO THE HECK WAS JARVIS?

Tony laughed. "Jarvis is my AI. He basically runs the whole building system. Hey Jarvis? Send the pizza up."

\---LINE BREAK OF PIZZA---

A few minutes later, the elevator dinged. By this time, the rest of the Avengers had gathered in the kitchen, and were anxiously awaiting the pizza's arrival. Once the elevator door opened, a lady with red hair walked in, carrying five boxes of pizza.

"Pepper! Here, let me get those for you," Tony offered.

"DON'T DO IT! He's going to take it all to his room and eat it ALL!" Hawkeye shouted.

"WHAT? When's the last time I did that?"

"Well, does a few days ago ring a bell?"

While they were all bickering, Percy decided to approach Pepper. "I'll take them?" Pepper handed the pizza over, and Percy put the boxes on the counter, grabbing 6 pieces for himself first. What? It was a reasonable number.

Then there was a mass of bodies fighting over the pizza, and soon there was only veggie pizza left. They all were draped over various chairs and couches chomping down on their pizza, (except Thor who was eating what looked like a poptart-pizza sandwich) when Steve spoke up.

"So Percy, tell us a little about yourself."

"You already know everything, don't you? Where I'm from, who my family is, how old I am, all that."

"Yeah, but tell us what you're like! Like, I don't know, what's your favorite color?" Tony asked.

"Blue. You guys think I'm a terrorist. Why do you want to know?"

"No, we have suspicions that you're a terrorist," Black Widow explained.

"Okay, but real quick? What's your real name? I know Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Thor, but what about you two?" Percy gestured to Black Widow and Hawkeye.

"I'm Natasha Romanoff and he's Clint Batron. So tell us about where you go every summer, or where you went when you were missing for like 9 months."

"I go to a camp for people with ADHD and/or dyslexia. I have both, as do most of the kids there. And I already told you, I was kidnapped by my crazy aunt and got amnesia. Then I went on a summer school field trip."

"What's the camp called?" Clint asked.

"Is this an interrogation or a get-to-know-Percy thing? It's feeling more like an interrogation at this point."

"Fine, how about you tell us about your friends? Or what you do for fun?"

"I like to sword fight. I also really love swimming," Percy responded, ignoring the friends part. It was still a sore topic.

"What about a girlfriend?" Bruce inquired.

"No. Not anymore. Next question?" Percy grumbled.

"Well someone's a bit grumpy. What happened, had a bad break up?" Tony asked.

"No. I said next question."

"You know you can talk to us, right?" Natasha told him.

"Can I? You guys don't seem at all interested in me but more interested in what I've done or not done and I'm pretty sure you just want me here so I won't go and do whatever terrorists do, but news flash! I'M NOT A TERRORIST."

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Thor suddenly shouted, "I REMEMBER NOW! On Asgard he is said to be a hero! We are told of his quests and adventures!"

Percy stared at him, completely dumbfounded. He was told about on different planets? Or realms? Whatever Asgard was? Then he noticed everyone staring at him. "What?"

"Is that you, young Perseus? Are you the Perseus son of Jack I was given stories about?" Thor asked.

"Uh... no. Sorry to disappoint?" He took out riptide and fiddled with it, it was what he did when he got nervous.

"You're lying. You fiddle with that pen whenever you get nervous," Natasha pointed out.

"Is that...? The mighty hero's sword? The one called Anaklusmos?" Thor asked, breathlessly.

"Ana- what?" Clint asked with a completely confused face.

"Anaklusmos. Or Riptide in Greek," Thor explained.

"No, it's just my pen. I... just really like this pen," Percy stuttered, knowing he wasn't fooling anyone.

"Wait, so you're a hero?" Steve too was utterly confused at this turn of events.

Percy sighed. "I'm guessing that you won't believe me if I say wrong place wrong time?" They all shook their heads. Percy let out a bigger sigh. "Fine. Have you guys heard of the Greek gods?"

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, all them?" said Natasha.

"Yeah, exactly. Well, long story short, they're all alive and having a grand old time sitting on Olympus, which is on top of the Empire State Building by the way, and coming down here to... mingle with mortals, ending in kids. The child of a god and a mortal is a demigod, which I happen to be."

There were a lot of questions and confused noises after this.

"How does that explain all the explosions and stuff?" Tony asked.

"Well, along with demigods, greek monsters also exist. They absolutely love trying to kill us, so we're constantly having to kill them. The Mist prevents mortals like you guys from seeing what's really happening, so if I get attacked by a monster, it'll look like I'm beating up someone with a baseball bat or something. I guess you guys are clear sighted though, because you could all see my sword." With this, he uncapped riptide, and it extended into the amazing leaf shaped bronze sword that it was. There were cries of surprise, and in Tony and Thor's case, excitement.

"HOW'D IT DO THAT? THAT'S SO COOL!" Tony exclaimed.

"No clue. Magic?" Percy responded, shrugging.

"Who's your godly parent?" Bruce asked. Percy had wished they wouldn't ask that.

"Poseidon. God of the sea, earthquakes and horses." He finished his pizza and stood up. It was only noon, and Percy didn't know what to do.

"Wanna watch a movie?" Clint asked the room as a whole, licking the grease and pizza sauce off his fingers.

"Sorry, but I can't. Technology kind of sends out signals to all the monsters nearby. Although..." He trailed off, "a friend of mine did just recently made the gods promise that we have a month of rest, so sure thing! I haven't seen a movie is a really long time."

\---LINE BREAK WHILE THEY WATCH MOVIES---

They ended up watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies, and when they were done, it was 11:30 PM. They all went to sleep afterwards.


	5. Chapter Four

3rd POV

Percy went to his room and collapsed on his bed. He lay there for a bit, just staring at his wall. He felt numb. His friends, almost all of them gone. His parents, gone. His Annabeth, gone. All because of him. He was their leader, he should have saved them.

His sleep was anything but restful. As soon as he drifted off, crying softly, a voice boomed.

"Perseus Jackson. We meet again. Let's have some more fun, shall we?" Tartarus laughed, unwrapping a whip from his hand. He brought the whip down repeatedly on Percy's back, and again, and again, and again.

After what felt like forever, Tartarus suddenly stopped. He leaned down, and whispered into Percy's ear: "I miss you. Come back soon."

Back in the real world, Percy was thrashing on his bed, tears streaming down his face, when he woke up to his alarm clock.

He turned over and turned his alarm off, and sat on the edge of his bed, head in hands. Why did Tartarus have to be so awful? Percy wondered. He and Annabeth had been tortured by him in real life when they were there. Percy had tried to take Annabeth's punishments, but Tartarus saw how painful it was for Percy to watch so he refused. Then they'd escaped, and he'd been tortured ever since the war ended in his dreams. The injuries in the dreams didn't appear in real life, but where they were always got sore and tender the day after.

Percy made his way to the bathroom, showering and getting ready for the day to begin. When he was all dressed and freshened up, it was 5:30 (he gets up at 5:00). He went to the kitchen, not expecting to see Steve behind the stove, making pancakes. He was humming a tune to himself quietly, flipping pancakes, one by one, making enough to fill an entire army.

Percy silently sat down at the counter. Steve still hadn't noticed the teen sitting there, so when he turned around and saw him, he flung the plate of pancakes in Percy's face.

"Well good morning to you too," Said Percy, laughing at Steve's look of shock and embarrassment.

"I didn't know you were there," he said sheepishly, "what are you doing up so early?"

"I like to watch the sunrise. During this time of the year I have to wait until about 6:15," Percy replied, "feel free to join me."

"Huh. For some reason I didn't expect you to be the type of guy who'd watch the sunrise."

"Yeah. I used to watch them with..." he trailed off, thinking about how Annabeth had forced him to read The Outsiders, which he didn't regret, and ever since then he and Annabeth had watched the sun rise every day. He decided to continue the tradition, even though it was slightly painful, as it reminded him of her.

Steve looked at him thoughtfully. Percy left the sentence unfinished and Steve assumed he was going to say his girlfriend. They had asked him about it yesterday, but he had refused to explain. He only had to assume it was a really bad breakup and he still wasn't over it.

"Sure, I'll join you."

They finished eating their pancakes, and they made their way up to the roof. The morning was still dark but not too dark to see. Percy sat on the edge of the roof and gestured to Steve to join him. Steve looked unsure.

"What if we fall?" He asked, being the responsible one. Percy just shrugged. He didn't really care, if he was completely honest with himself.

The sky started gaining a red and pink color, then the sun started rising, adding an orange to the mix. The view was amazing, and the whole process was absolutely stunning. When the sun had fully risen, Steve asked: "So where do you usually go to watch this?"

Percy had usually just sat on his cabin roof, or occasionally near Rachel's cave. He just responded with "Summer camp."

"What about your friends? What are they like?"

"Oh, so I see. Are you trying to interrogate me again? Is that what this is?" Percy asked, getting more and more irritated with these people. He just wanted to go and they kept trying to get information out of him.

"What? No! I just want to get to know you better," Steve replied, speaking the truth. Percy didn't want to believe him, though.

"Then tell me about you. I've heard of you guys beating up some aliens or something a year ago, but I don't actually know anything about you. Like, your origin story," said Percy.

Steve paused for a bit, thinking about where to start. He then told Percy about how he was from another time, and how he had been a tiny and sick before he had gotten the serum, all about Bucky, and just about his life in general. When he was finished, Percy sat there, processing it all.

"I have a friend who I think you'd really like to meet. He's also from that time. Maybe I'll call him over sometime." Percy finally said.

"I'd love to meet him," Steve responded, internally groaning a bit. If he had to meet one more old guy that couldn't hear a single thing and kept saying 'back in my day' he'd punch someone in the face, "Say, now that we've done something of yours, want to do something I do every day?" Steve asked, smirking on the inside slightly.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Just a run."

\---LINE BREAK IN APPRECIATION OF GUINEA PIGS---

Around half an hour later, Steve and Percy came back to the tower, Steve smiling. By this time, Natasha and Clint were up and eating various breakfast foods.

"Where have you been?" Nat asked, gesturing to the boys.

"Running," they responded in unison.

Clint raised an eyebrow, "Percy. Running with you? Was he ok?"

"Yeah, I was fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Percy asked, looking at him with a slight smirk.

"You do realize Steve runs at like, 80 miles per hour right?"

"That's a bit of an over-exaggeration. And I just really like running. I used to run all the time at my summer camp, and being a demigod helps a bit."

They just gaped at him. Nobody could keep up with Steve. He was a freaking SUPER SOLDIER. How was that even possible?

"Well, I'm going down to the pool," Percy said as he walked to the elevator.

"Wait! Percy," Bruce called out as he stumbled strolled into the room, "I still need that check-up, remember?"

Percy's smile instantly disappeared, replaced with a very anxious face. He did not want to have a check-up. He had too many scars and he didn't want to scare anyone off.

"Come on, it'll just be you and me, you won't have anything to worry about," Bruce assured him.

"F-fine. I guess it won't hurt..."

"Great! Let's go now if that works for you...?"

"Yeah. Sure."

\---LINE BREAK FOR MY FELLOW PEEPS WITH TRYPANOPHOBIA---

Percy and Bruce entered the medical bay. Percy looked at the tools and freaky looking equipment as he made his way to a bed. Bruce did all the usual stuff, like the knee-hammer thing and the looking-into-your-mouth part. Then he asked Percy to remove his jacket.

Sure it was the middle of August, and it was 80 something degrees, but Percy always wore his hoodie. He didn't just have scars on his chest and back, they littered his arms as well. Some caused by monsters, some... not caused by monsters.

"Please Percy, don't make this difficult," Bruce pleaded with him, just trying to make him remove his sweatshirt and shirt, holding a stethoscope dejectedly. "You don't even have to take your shirt completely off. You can just pull it up so I can hear your heartbeat, come on. Please Perce?"

"Fine. But please don't mention it to the others?" Percy sighed as he proceeded to unzip his hoodie.

"Mention wha..." Bruce's words were lost in his throat once Percy took off his shirt in one fluid movement. Percy was exposed to the world, and he hated it. He wanted to get his shirt back on.

Bruce looked at Percy's scars. There was a countless amount, ranging from whip marks, stab wounds, what looked like brand marks, and cuts on both wrists. He breathed deeply and continued with the check-up.

Percy looked anywhere but at Bruce, thinking he would run off at any moment to gather the Avengers to goggle at him. Once Bruce was done with the stethoscope thing, he handed Percy his shirt and hoodie back.

"Don't worry. I won't tell them," Bruce said gently.

\---LINE BREAK IN APPRECIATION OF BRUCE. WE LOVE HIM---

Once the check-up was complete, Percy made his way down to the pool. He wanted to have time to think, and he also just really wanted to swim.

He jumped in and did a few laps, then swam down to the bottom. He sat there, thinking about his what he was going to do next, thinking about Annabeth, wondering about how Nico and Reyna were doing, and eventually fell asleep.

Tony POV

Tony was sitting in the kitchen, bored out of his mind. He'd repaired and upgraded everything in the tower, tinkered with his suits, and he was left with nothing to do. Clint and Natasha were off on a mission of some sort, Thor was called to Asgard earlier that morning, and so it was just Bruce and Steve. Capsicle was no fun, he never wanted to prank people and Bruce was busy updating Percy's file or something.

RIGHT! Percy was here! He'd forgotten about that. Percy was at the pool, so Tony went to the elevator to join him. He could find something that they wanted to do together... Hey! Maybe he was good at pranks! When he walked into the pool, he didn't see Percy there. Then a body at the bottom of the deeper end caught his eye.

"SH*T! Oh my god, Jarvis, call the Avengers down here!" Tony was panicking. He didn't know what to do! Percy was either drowning or already dead at the bottom of the pool! Get him out of the water! That's a good start!

"The only Avengers here are Mr. Rogers and Mr. Banner, would you like me to alert them to come down to the pool?" Jarvis asked.

"YES! Tell them it's urgent!" Tony yelled, then he dove into the pool. He emerged with Percy in his arms. Now what? He'd never had to deal with this before! What do you do with someone who wasn't breathing? CPR, right? How do you do that? Is it 5 pumps and a breath? Or is it 10 pumps?

"Tony? What's happening? Jarvis just called me down... HOLY CRAP WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO PERCY?" Bruce shouted, running towards Tony and Percy.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! I JUST CAME IN HERE AND HE WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO CPR ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS PRANKS!" Tony yelled, getting hysterical. He didn't want this kid dying on him, and especially not on his watch. Just then, Steve sprinted in.

"What's going on? Is everyone okay? WHAT HAPPENED TO PERCY?" Steve ran over to them. Then Percy opened his eyes and sat up.

"PERCY! You're okay! How are you alive? WHAT IS HAPPENING? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. YOU WERE DEAD AND NOW YOU'RE NOT. WHAT-" Tony was cut off buy Percy waving his hands around and saying "Woah woah woah what? I was dead? Why'd you guys wake me up? Why were you all yelling?"

"What do you mean wake you up? You were just sitting at the bottom of the pool!"

"Yeah I know! I'm a child of Poseidon, remember? I can breathe underwater. I just needed to think and I feel the most relaxed in the water. I'm completely fine," Percy assured them all, and then laughed at their flabbergasted faces.

"But... you were just... what?" Tony was still confused. Nevertheless, he was relieved that Percy hadn't died. He was starting to grow fond of the kid, whether he liked it or not.

"Well, I'm going to swim some more. You guys wanna join?" Percy asked, looking at the others. He then walked behind them and casually pushed both Steve and Tony into the pool.

"HEY!" They both shouted. Tony leapt out and dragged Percy in and then looked at Bruce. He didn't want him to hulk out, but then Bruce smiled and pushed Tony back in and jumped in himself. They then spent the next 10 minutes having a splash war, which Percy completely won. Tony had a suspicion that Percy had more power than he had let on. Percy had just said that he was the son of Poseidon, but the way the waves seemed to be significantly bigger when he splashed made Tony think his suspicions were right.

Jarvis suddenly rang throughout the room, saying, "Sir, Thor has just called for the Avengers to join him in the living room." Tony sighed. He probably just needed help with the toaster again, but in case it was an actual emergency, they all got out, sopping wet.

"Here," Percy said, touching Tony, drying him instantly. When Tony looked at him in awe, Percy just wiggled his fingers and said, "magic!"

They then all walked into the elevator, Percy gripping the railing inside tightly. "You okay, Perce," Bruce asked, upon noticing this.

"Yep. Just fine. I just... don't like elevators that much. I'm fine though," he managed to say, making a strained smile. They arrived on the right floor, and Percy burst out the doors, gasping slightly.

Clint and Natasha had apparently completed their mission, because they too were here, though they were both glaring at something across the room. Tony's eyes followed to where they were looking, and saw Thor, with Loki behind him.


	6. Chapter Five

Kinda 3rd POV?

"What is he doing here?" Tony asked Thor sharply, "he tried to take over the world, remember?"

"I understand your distaste for my brother but Odin made me take him back here to Midgard to ensure his punishment. In any case, he has promised he won't try and rule over you humans again," Thor explained.

"Thor. I understand that he is your brother and you probably care about him very much, but he tried to take Earth. He used mind control to make me fight against you guys. And I know you want to trust him, but it's not a very good idea to trust the literal god of lies." Clint pointed out. Just as Thor was about to speak up again, Percy jumped in.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little..." he waved his hands around in the air, "confused with all," he gestured to Loki and the rest of the Avengers, "this."

"Oh, sorry. Let's just update you really quickly. This is Loki, god of mischief and lies and a bunch of other stuff, and he's the one who lead the Chitauri attack on New York. Overall not good guy," Tony explained, glaring at Loki the whole time.

"Listen, I can explain," Loki started, but was cut off by Clint.

"Nuh-uh, you don't get to talk right now. I'm still angry at you, and if you try to say anything I am fairly certain I will lose all self control and put an arrow through your face."

"Wait, Clint, can I hear what he was going to say?" Percy asked. He was wanted to hear what he had to say about the matter.

"Thank you. I can explain my actions during that time. I had too been controlled throughout the whole thing. Someone had been in control over me from the beginning. I didn't do any of that with my own free-will," Loki vowed.

After staring at Loki for a few seconds, searching for any sign that he was lying and finding none, Percy stated, "I believe him."

Outrage and disbelief burst from the mouths of the Avengers, aside from Thor, who looked at him thankfully.

"LISTEN! He has to stay here anyway, right Thor? So why don't you at least give him a chance!" Percy shouted over the protests.

"The hero is correct, midgardians. Loki will have to stay here, no matter how pleased you are by the idea," Thor confirmed. There were grumbled responses, some on the negative side and some on the not as negative side. Tony stalked out of the room, quickly followed by Clint, then Natasha, then Bruce and Steve. Thor then ran after them, trying to reason with them, leaving Percy and Loki in the room alone.

"So, are you by any chance the hero call Perseus Jackson?" Loki questioned, uncertainly.

Percy tensed, "yeah, how'd you know?"

"I heard Thor mention a 'Percy son of Jack', and you seem to fit the legend description fairly well. I put two and two together."

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense." They stood there, awkwardly. Percy finally walked over to the kitchen area and pulled out two bowls and spoons.

"Want some cereal?" He asked Loki. Loki looked at the dishes suspiciously. Being offered something and having it not be a trap was something that rarely happened. This had to be a trick. He'd just met this demigod and he was already offering food? This was a trap of some sort... he just couldn't figure out how.

"I'll just take that as a yes. What kind do you want? We have Mini-Wheats, Frosted Flakes, Cheerios..." He continued to name off numerous cereal brand names, but Loki didn't pay attention. He was still confused by what to do. Does he accept? What do you do when someone is nice to you? It was as if a DOES NOT COMPUTE warning was flashing across his brain.

"Loki. Hey, Loki. What's up? You totally spaced-out right there. Do you have ADHD? I do that sometimes but that's because of my ADHD. What kind of cereal do you want?"

Loki made some ingenious noise like "ughhggauuuuhhhh" and Percy just looked at him like 'you ok bro?'

"Umm... I'll just give you Lucky Charms?" Percy said as he pulled out a red box from the cupboard and filled the bowl with the contents inside. "Want milk with that, bud?"

Loki had finally come back to his senses and managed out a "yes..?" Percy then poured the milk on the cereal, sliding it over to Loki. He made himself a bowl of the same cereal and sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen and began to eat.

"Isn't this a... erm... breakfast food?" Loki asked. Percy nodded in confirmation.

"Wouldn't you eat this during breakfast time then?" Loki puzzled.

"Yeah, but it's too good to only have one a day." Percy explained, waving his empty spoon around.

Loki watched Percy for a bit while he ate his cereal, and then asked him the last question he was prepared for.

"What are all your scars from?"

Percy dropped his spoon, making a slight splash. He just stared at Loki, wondering how on earth he had known about his scars. He had made sure to wear his hoodie, even in the pool and during his morning run. It had been miserable, but he really didn't want these guys to know. At least, not yet. Undoubtedly they'd figure it out eventually, Bruce already had, but he'd want to keep them secret for now.

"Monsters. Fights with monsters. Fights with other demigods. Just stuff like that," He answered, though Loki saw through the lie.

"Not all of them though," Loki gently pressed.

Percy looked down at his cereal and mumbled, "yeah. Not all of them."

Loki just peered at him, waiting for him to explain further. Percy glanced up at him, and upon seeing that Loki wasn't just going to leave it, he continued saying, "Almost all of them are. There are a few that aren't demigod related, some from... um... incidents." He paused, not wanting to go on.

Loki looked at him with understanding in his eyes. "I won't tell anyone. I promise. I know that I'm the god of lies among other things, but you can trust me."

Percy looked up from his cereal once again. He wanted to trust Loki, to tell him the truth, but he just didn't know. He hadn't told anyone about Gabe, not even Annabeth. It wasn't something you necessarily advertise. He also hadn't told anyone about the scars on his wrists. They were his most recent scars. He didn't like talking about it, it was another thing you don't really show-off. He sighed.

"I... I want to trust you, Loki. I really do, but I haven't told anyone about those. Not even my girlfriend, and we were as close as could be. Sorry... I just don't think I can talk about them."

"That's okay. I just was wondering," they sat there, each of them looking down at their colorful sugary and milky food (A/N I got tired of saying 'cereal').

The Avengers walked back into the room, all of them looking less than pleased.

"You can stay," Natasha stated, looking at Loki, "but you must be under the watch of one of us. That includes Percy. Besides the bathroom, you will be with one of the Avengers or Fury, 24/7. That includes sleep, though then you will be sleeping at the same time as us, you will be in one of our rooms. You are not under any circumstances to stab one of us. Stabbing people, as fun as it is, is generally not accepted and is punishable. Do you understand."

Loki raised his hands in surrender, and replied, "I understand. But what about showers?"

"That falls in the category of the bathroom," said Bruce.

"Why do I have the feeling none of you like me very much," Loki remarked sarcastically.

"Because none of us like you very much! You attacked us and tried to take over the entire world!" Clint exclaimed.

"I like you!" Percy pointed out, then blushed. "I mean, not in that way, I just like you as in I don't not like you. Like, you know what I mean? Not in a romantic way. Just in a... you know what? I'm going to stop talking now."

Steve and Tony snickered slightly at Percy's confused and exasperated expression.

"Alright you guys, just shut up," remarked Percy, "I'm just going to go to my room and make a few calls."

\---LINE BREAK OF TELLING YOU TO REMEMBER TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF---

"HEY! Nico!" Percy was in the middle of Iris Messaging Nico to check up on him, as well as ask him if he wanted to come over to talk to Steve. He figured Nico might like that, seeing as they're both pulled from the 1920-30s and thrown into the modern world.

"Percy? How've you been? Where've you been? What's up?" Nico asked, looking concerned. Well, as concerned as Nico could get.

"I'm fine. I've been kidnapped by the Avengers. They seem to think I'm a terrorist. Well, they did, then this Norse god showed up and went 'OMG PERCY JACKSON' and totally exposed me. Now they know I'm a demigod and I'm part of their team of superheroes."

Nico looked at Percy with an overwhelmed face, then just said "So you've been kidnapped by superheroes who think you're a terrorist, met a Norse god, and said Norse god was one of your 'fangirls', I'm using that expression correctly, right?" Nico clarified before continuing, "then the superheroes claimed you as their own?" Nico summed up.

"Yeah that's what's happened to me over the last two days. What about you? You've gotten together with a certain blond son of Apollo yet?" Percy asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Nico blushed and mumbled something incomprehensible.

"Sorry, I didn't hear that," Percy laughed.

"Oh shut it!" Nico exclaimed. Percy laughed again.

"Oh yeah, there's someone I want you to meet! He's also been pulled from the 1930's! Or around there. You think you could shadow travel over? I'm at the Avengers Tower."

Nico then nodded, still slightly flushed. He swiped a hand through the image, breaking the connection. 10 seconds later, Percy heard a scream from the living room.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHY DID A CREEPY EMO KID JUST APPEAR IN MY TOWER???" So that was Tony, Percy thought as he struggled to hold back laughter. He started to make his way to the living room.

"What was that Tony? AHHH! WHY IS THERE A VAMPIRE IN THE CORNER?" Percy suspected that was Clint. He walked into the room and saw Tony holding out a giant butcher's knife and a repulsor and Clint wielding two frying pans waving them threateningly at a very irritated looking Nico.

"PERCY, STAY BACK! THIS DEMON CHILD JUST TELEPORTED HERE AND I'M PRETTY SURE HE'S GOING TO EAT ALL OUR SOULS!!!" Tony yelled. Percy just burst out laughing.

"Guys, chillax! This is my cousin, Nico. Nico, these are Tony and Clint."

Nico just extended an arm out to Tony, "Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

Tony shook it, saying "Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Also known as Iron Man."

Nico then shook Clint's hand and looked expectantly at Percy. Percy was too busy thinking about how polite Nico was being to notice. When he'd met the Avengers, he'd promptly challenged them to a fight. It wasn't until Nico elbowed him in the side that he realized he was being stared at.

"Oh right! Guys, do you know where Steve is? I want him and Nico to meet. They're in the same position, well, time wise. Nico here is in his late 80s!"

Nico grunted, muttering "Just tell everyone we ever meet why don't you."

"He's in the training room, and I think Loki's with him. Nat might be down there too. And are you sure this kid is in his 80s?"

"Not a kid. And yeah, I'm pretty sure I would know if I was from a different time. And I'm pretty sure that this isn't the 1930's, so back off."

Percy dragged Nico away and to the elevator. He pressed the button for the training room floor and turned to Nico. "How are you? Really?"

Nico just faced forward and responded with "I'm fine."

"No, you're not. None of us are fine," Percy corrected him, then the elevator dinged. "We'll talk later in my room, okay?" Then he walked out. Nico lingered behind.

"Yo Steve! Remember that friend I had that was from your time?"

Steve walked over, "Yeah, I remember. Did you talk to him?"

"Yeah, and I actually have him here if you want to talk. Hold on, NICO! Come here! This is Steve!"

Steve was surprised to say the least when a teenager dressed in all black clothes hanging off his skinny frame walked out from near the elevator. He was relieved, he was expecting an old gray-haired guy that kept complaining about how the Millennials were ruining the world or something. But he was also doubtful that this kid was in his 80s or 90s. This had to be a prank, right?

"Steve, this is Nico di Angelo. He's from something like... 1932?" Percy said, looking to Nico for clarification. Nico only nodded and extended his hand.

"Yeah, hey kid. I'm Steve Rogers. So... uh," Steve didn't know what to do. He was fairly certain this was a prank, but he wanted to see how it played out, "so how were you... kept from not aging?"

Nico scowled. "First off, I'm not a kid. Secondly, I was originally from Italy when Zeus tried killing me and my sister. My father then had our memories wiped and shoved us into this casino where time is... complicated. We were stuck there for what felt like only a month but what happened to be seventy years. So here I am, 80 something years old with the mindset and body of a teenager in the 1930s."

Steve was silent for a while, wondering if this was the truth or not. He decided to take the benefit of the doubt and believe the kid. "That's... wait, did you say Zeus? What'd he want?"

"I'm the son of Hades. I'm guessing Hades did something that didn't please Zeus too much, then Zeus decided to take a blast of lightning at us. My mother died, but me and my sister survived."

"What happened to your sister?"

"She died," was Nico's response. He made it quite clear that this wasn't up for conversation any more. During this time, Percy had apparently left to talk to Natasha. Nico looked over to Percy with slight concern in is eyes, "how's he doing?"

"How's Percy who doing? He's fine. Why, should he not be?" Steve asked with some surprise.

"He's just... been through a lot this past week. Well, these past few weeks," Nico replied without clarifying any further. Steve didn't know how to respond to that. He didn't know what to think about this kid. He was so... dark and mysterious.

Steve too looked at Percy, showing Nat and Loki, who had gotten up from the bench he was sitting on, what the best way to disarm someone with a sword was. "So, how'd you meet him? Percy, I mean." Steve asked Nico.

"He saved me and my sister from a monster. I was around 10 at the time. Well, technically 80. What about you? He told me you guys thought he was a terrorist and then kidnapped and questioned him."

"Yeah... that's what happened. It was at a cemetery of some sort. He told us it was rude to interrupt someone in mourning and then we fought," Steve recalled, frowning. He wondered who he was visiting.

Percy cheered as Nat successfully knocked Loki's sword out of his hand. "Well, I'm glad he looks happy. What has he told you about himself?" Nico asked, also watching Percy high-five both Nat and Loki.

"Well, we know he's a demigod, son of Poseidon. He can breathe under water and dry people off just by touching them. He had a girlfriend and they broke up, but that's strictly off limits. He watches sunrises, he goes to a summer camp, he has a sword that's disguised as a pen, and according to Thor, he's some sort of hero. He doesn't like to be called kid, like you I guess, his favorite color is blue, he had ADHD and dyslexia, he can run really fast and for a long time, and he doesn't like doctor appointments or elevators," Steve listed off. To this, Nico raised his eyebrows.

"Huh. That's... less than what I would have thought. But it's not my place to tell you, so you'll just have to wait and figure out the rest of him alone."

"Wait. What do you mean, figure out the rest?" Steve questioned.

"I told you, it's not my place to tell," Nico said, walking to Percy, leaving Steve to think that there was more to Percy than they knew.

\---LINE BREAK TELLING YOU TO STAY AWESOME---

After a while, Jarvis called for Steve, Natasha, Loki, Percy, and Nico to go upstairs for dinner. They all climbed into the elevator and Steve watched Percy carefully. Last time they were in an elevator he looked like he was about to either throw up or have a panic attack.

Percy was, once again, gripping the railing and looking at the ceiling. He was trying to keep his breathing steady, forcing himself to think of anything but the Doors of Death. It wasn't necessarily the best memory he had about elevators. He silently cursed the gods for making him scared of elevators. I mean, seriously? What else is he going to fear? Is there going to be a day when he flinches every time he sees a stuffed animal? The elevator opened its doors and Percy ran out as casually as he could.

"So... what are we having for dinner?" Natasha asked, looking at Percy weirdly.

"SPAGHETTI!!!" Tony yelled from the other room.

"Are you going to stay for dinner, Nico?" Steve asked.

"I should get back to camp. Will will be worried..."

"Ooohhh!!! Will, huh??? And you should stay! We still need to talk later," Percy interrupted. Nico scowled at him but didn't protest.

They all got some spaghetti and sat on the couch and chairs. Nico just stayed standing, leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

"Nico, you need to eat. I know you haven't been eating much since..." Percy looked at the others and continued, "but you need to eat more than a grape a day."

Nico frowned, "I've been eating more. And I'm fine."

To this, Percy raised an eyebrow, "So if I were to tell a certain son of Apollo that you skipped a meal, you'd still be fine?"

Nico paled, "Don't tell Will, and I'll eat something."

Percy smirked and said "deal." Nico left the wall to get a small plate of spaghetti. The Avengers had watched the banter with interest and amusement. Nico came back and sat on the floor with his back to the wall, poking the food.

"So..." Clint started awkwardly. Everyone just looked at one another, not having any idea what to talk about.

"What's all your guys' names?" Nico asked, gazing at the Avengers.

"Well, my name is Percy Jackson. Very nice to meet you! What's your name?" Nico rolled his eyes and poked Percy in the stomach.

"My name is Natasha, that's Clint, that trash over there is Tony, and you've already met Steve. Thor is currently... doing something. I think he might be reporting to his father about how Loki's doing." Nat answered.

"What about you?" Nico asked, gesturing to Loki.

"Loki, son of Odin, god of mischief at your service." Nico nodded.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."

"Oh, so you're a demi-whatchacallit?" Clint asked, mouth full, "like Percy?"

"Yeah me and Nico are cousins," Percy replied, ruffling Nico's har. Nico shoved his hand away and glared at him. Percy just chuckled.

"Wait, so I'm confused. Earlier you said you were from the 1930's? But, you're like, 15. How on earth does that work?" Tony asked, looking completely confused, staring at Nico.

Nico sighed, "I was stuck in a timeless hotel, now can I please eat my food? I would rather not be killed by... someone."

"Why would you be killed?" Natasha questioned.

Nico opened his mouth to reply, but Percy beat him to it. "He doesn't eat much so his boyfriend makes him and if he skips a meal then he flips out."

Nico blushed bright red, "he's not my boyfriend!"

Percy laughed, "Yeah, sure he isn't. You guys just do everything together and stare into each other's eyes and he makes sure you're not killing yourself because you're just friends?" Nico just threw some of his food in Percy's face and mumbled "shut up" in greek. Percy threw some of his pasta at Nico in retaliation, and yelled "NEVER!" also in Greek.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Clint shouted, standing on the couch, then promptly flung all of his food in Natasha's face. It stuck there, and then dropped to the floor, revealing Nat's very dangerous looking expression. Clint blanched and then ran for cover as she stared chucking handfuls of her spaghetti after him. Tony then threw his whole plate at Steve, who was already covered in food thanks to Bruce. Bruce was lying on the floor laughing his head off.

Percy was then struck in the face with a ball of mashed up plain spaghetti. He looked to find out who had thrown it, and his eyes landed on Loki, who was just looking innocently at his nails. He looked up at Percy, gave a small wave and smirked. Percy grinned evilly and ran to the kitchen, grabbing the whole pot of spaghetti. Loki noticed this and quickly ran out of the room. Cheater, Percy thought. Then he saw Nico, who was still barely covered in food. He still hadn't moved, and the Avengers seemed afraid to provoke him. Percy however, wasn't. He made a huge ball of pasta, sauce and all, and threw it at the unsuspecting Nico. It hit him squarely in the chest and practically exploded.

The Avengers watched in horror and curiosity as Nico looked down at himself covered in pasta, and then directly at Percy. With a huge smile on his face, Percy ducked under the counter. Nico finally spoke, deadly calm. "Perseus Jackson, I am going to kill you."

Percy only shouted back, "Get in line!" Then popped up from behind the counter with a whole other ball of pasta. He threw it, but this time missed, and it instead hit Thor, who had just entered and was staring at the scene with shock and confusement, right in the face.


	7. Chapter Six

3rd POV

Loki, who had been watching through a cracked open door, burst out laughing. Thor only looked more dumbfounded. "What is this? Is this a Midgardian tradition to which I have not heard of?"

"Yeah Thor, every month we have a huge ceremony where we attack each other with food," Percy responded, sarcasm dripping off every word. Thor just flushed. He looked around desperately, trying to find something to change the topic. His eyes landed on the pasta-covered Nico.

"Who is this young lad?" Thor questioned, gesturing to Nico.

"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. You must be Thor?" Nico responded, shaking his hand.

"That is right demigod. Are you a friend of Perseus'?" Thor asked, missing the Percy's flinch when he used his full name.

"Cousin. I was here to meet Steve, and I was told to stay for dinner. That turned out to be a big mistake."

"Hey! If you hadn't stayed, then this wouldn't have happened, and it would've been a very boring dinner," Percy protested.

"Yeah. Well, Percy wants to talk before I leave, so... Where do you want to go, Perce?" Nico asked, clearly anxious to get away from the awkwardness.

"Right. This way's my room if you want to go there, or we could go to the pool?"

Nico shook his head at the pool idea, "your room is good."

"Whatcha guys gonna talk about?" Clint asked.

Before Percy could open his mouth, Nico just replied with a "none of your business." Tony raised his eyebrows. "We're all a team. If it concerns Percy, then it concerns us as well."

"Guys..." Percy tried to interrupt.

"No. There are things you don't know, things you don't want to know. We need to talk to get these things off our chests. We're all each other's got left, so please just don't even say this concerns you. It doesn't."

"Guys, I'm sorry but he's right about this. I need to talk to Nico, alone," Percy interjected. The Avengers scowled, but let it go.

"Thank you," Nico said, exasperated. They walked to Percy's room and sat on his bed. After a few moments of silence, Percy blurted, "I'm sorry about them, it's just that I think they want to really just know everything and if you have information they don't have, then they want to listen in."

Nico sighed, "It's okay. I... It's okay. So. How are you?"

Percy looked at the floor. Nico sensed something was definitely wrong. Well, more wrong than it already was.

"Percy... Percy what's wrong?" Nico asked, more urgent this time.

"Nico. My parents. They're gone."

Nico couldn't be hearing this correctly. Sally couldn't be gone. He would have felt it. She was the only thing he had close to a mother, "When... when did this happen?" Nico asked, throat dry.

"I don't know for sure. All I know is that there is now some college emo kid living in the apartment they were murdered in. Nico, I didn't even get to say goodbye. Or hello, for that matter. The last time I saw them was 9 months ago. I didn't see them for almost a year." By this time, Percy was in tears.

Nico wanted to make him feel better, but he didn't know how. "I'm certain they reached Elysium. There's no way they didn't. They were both amazing people." Percy just nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. Nico patted him on the back, even though he personally hated physical contact, and Percy winced. Nico frowned.

"Percy, what's wrong with your back." Nico asked, though it was clear it wasn't a question. It was a demand for an answer.

"It's nothing. How are you doing? How-"

"No. Perseus Jackson, you tell me what's wrong right now or I will harm you."

Percy hesitated. He then lifted up his shirt and Nico was finding himself staring at a mass of scars. "Percy... Percy what happened???" Nico asked, but it was just barely a whisper.

Percy explained through about what had happened in Tartarus. He explained how he and Annabeth had been found by monsters and they had been taken to Tartarus' castle and had been tortured. He explained how he could hear Annabeth's screams. He explained how they had escaped and ran into Bob and Damasen, how they had closed the Doors of Death and how Bob and Damasen had died for them. Throughout this whole thing, Percy had been fighting back panic attacks and flashbacks. Nico had listened to the whole thing without interrupting. He himself had almost had a flashback when Percy had described Tartarus with painful accuracy and detail.

Percy finished and he and Nico sat there for a few minutes, both thinking about their time in Tartarus and how much they had lost in the war. They both cursed the gods several times, taking pleasure in being able to yell at them without consequence (A/N Because of Reyna's wish). The door then burst open and Bruce ran in.

"Attack... central square... monsters..." He managed to say, out of breath for some reason. Percy and Nico looked at each other, both hoping this wasn't what they thought this was. The gods seriously couldn't break this promise, could they?

\---LINE BREAK TELLING YOU TO STAY AWESOME---

Apparently they could break this promise.

A few minutes later the Avengers, Loki and Nico stood facing an army of telekhines. Why there were over 50 telekhines attacking trees was unclear, but what was clear is that the gods had broken their promise. And Nico and Percy were very pissed.

"What the ever-loving f*ck are these?" Tony shouted over the screams of mortals running around. Percy didn't know what they were seeing, but whatever it was it couldn't be good.

"LANGUAGE!" Steve and Nico yelled at the same time. Tony looked from Steve, to Nico, then to Percy. "He really is from another time. I didn't really believe you, but it's clear. He's an old guy," Tony pointed to Nico, disbelief and slight amusement on his face.

Meanwhile, Clint was cracking up and Steve and Nico were staring at each other, thinking something along the lines of 'he said it too woah I can't believe he said it too'. It was all very amusing, that is until a car was flung in their direction. Steve was looking around, completely helpless at what to do. He was the leader and he had no clue what to do or what these creatures were. Percy saw this and took action.

"Okay! So these are a kind of greek monster. That means that they can only be harmed by special kinds of metals, so don't know what you guys are going to be able to do. Thor and Loki could probably kill them, seeing as they're gods, but-"

"Wait a second. Loki's going to be fighting with us?" Tony exclaimed.

"Yes, he is. Now, Tony, your light thingamabobbers can also most likely also work on them, but I think that's about it. But that's okay, because luckily for you, we have our very own Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo. Nat, Clint, Bruce and Steve. Could you guys maybe work on helping the citizens out of the way?" They nodded and got off to work.

"Now. Everyone else, are you ready?" They all looked uneasy, all except Percy and Nico. They looked confident and just plain angry, "then let's go."

Nico and Percy ran into battle, slashing at telekhines left and right. Tony watched in amazement as Percy killed three at one time, and then joined the battle himself. Thor was smashing monsters and zapped a bunch with lightning. Loki was stabbing, and looking fairly happy about it.

It was clear after 10 minutes of fighting that they were getting nowhere. Whenever they killed one, five seemed to replace them. Where they were coming from was a mystery to them all. Percy and Nico shared a look, and they knew he was going to need to use his powers. Percy didn't know why he hadn't told the Avengers of his powers. Maybe he was scared they were going to be afraid of him afterwards, but that was silly. He was powerful, but he wasn't scary.

Then he thought back to when he was in Tartarus and he had turned Akhlys' poison in herself. How he had controlled the poison to kill her, and he had enjoyed it.

He faltered, and got cut on the shoulder. He cried out and Nico heard it. "Percy! Use your powers, gosh darn it!"

Fine, he thought. If they're scared of me afterwards, then so be it. He raised his arms and called the water to him. Soon, he had a small whirlwind of water swirling violently around him. He used the water to fling the telekhines up in the air, causing them to burst into golden dust when they landed. He drowned several, forcing the water down their throats, not letting them have air. They too burst to golden dust. The Avengers had paused, watching this new display of powers.

Tony: I WAS RIGHT he does have more power than I thought! That is so cool.

Steve: Holy cow. That is amazing. I suppose that's how he won the splash war...?

Natasha: Nice job kid. nO YOU STUPID CIVILIAN THAT'S THE WRONG WAY.

Bruce: Woah, he is doing all this? Wait. Is that blood? IS HE INJURED???

Clint: JesUS CHRIST how can he do that??? that is freaky. And cool.

Thor: I knew the hero had it in him

Loki: stabby stabby stab. Remind me to never mess with Perseus. stab stab

Tony POV

Soon there was only one telekhine left, and Percy was about to slash its head off when it roared "Perseus Jackson, Nico di Angelo, the only two living survivors of Tartarus. Beware, he will come for you both once again." Percy beheaded it and it burst to gold dust.

"What did it say? Survivor of tartar sauce? What does that mean? Percy, Nico?" Tony asked. Percy and Nico didn't seem to hear.

"Percy. It had to be lying, right? He couldn't... could he? Percy. Please say he can't..." Nico pleaded, looking for once like he wasn't about to murder everyone. He looked almost afraid.

Percy just shook his head, staring at the dust. He too was looking almost afraid. "I- I don't know. Nico, I don't know."

Natasha spoke over the comms, saying "Meeting back at the tower. We need to talk about what just happened."

They all made their way to the tower, Nico and Percy walking in the back talking in hushed tones. Tony was just thinking about what the hell just happened. What had that telek-thing said? Tartar sauce was coming for them? Whatever it meant it shook Nico and Percy up quite a bit.

They walked to the living room (Percy once again stumbling out of the elevator. What was up with that? It was like the third time) and saw Nat already sitting there. Clint walked in from the hallway in his pajamas, which had Hawkeye symbols all over them. Nat just rolled her eyes.

"So, right off the bat, what in the world were those?" Steve asked, directing the question to Percy and Nico.

"Those were telekhines. They're a greek monster, I already explained this," Percy responded.

"What did they want?" Natasha questioned.

"We're not sure," Nico replied.

"What did that last one say? About tartar sauce? He's coming for you guys, the last survivors? What does that mean?"

"See, you guys are asking the wrong questions. How they were there, that's the real question. Reyna made the gods prevent attacks from monsters for at least a month, and it's barely been a week. They can't have broken the promise that fast, could they?" Nico asked, dodging the questions asked by Tony.

"It's the gods! You can't expect much from them!" Percy yelled, throwing his hands up in frustration. Thunder rumbled outside. Percy turned and shouted at the window, "OH, SHUT UP YOU BUTT FACES." The sky didn't reply.

"Uh, what are you talking to?" Clint asked, looking at Percy with interest.

"I'm just picking a fight with the sky, no biggie. Gotta have your yearly dose of all the gods hating you, that's all," he answered, still glaring out the window.

"Yeah, but you guys didn't answer my questions," Tony pressed. He was really interested at what this tartar sauce could do, and how it could be stopped. It was obvious that it was going to attack or something, and knowing how to prevent it would be nice.

Percy looked at Tony. "What questions?"

"Who is tartar sauce? What can he do? Is he going to attack us? How do we fight it? What can we do?"

Nico and Percy shared a look. Percy took a deep breath and Nico closed his eyes for a moment, squeezing his fists shut. "Tartarus is where monsters go when they turn to dust then reform. He's a primordial. He has all the monsters on his side, because if they aren't on his side then they'll have to spend eternity down there instead of killing demigods up here," Percy took another deep breath and continued, "Yes, we think he's going to attack us. Nico and I think he's going to try and rise to power and take over the world. I'm not sure how we're going to fight him. I don't want to get camp dragged into this, seeing as they just got out of a war. We lost all our best fighters, I don't think we can afford to lose anymore. I suppose we can get you all weapons that will work on monsters, but I don't think it's going to be enough."

Tony took a moment to process all the information. He didn't know how exactly to respond. First off, Percy had just revealed that there was going to be a huge immortal monster thing declaring war on them. Second, he also just said that his camp, wherever that was, had just gotten out of a war. And they had lost all their warriors? And if this Tartarus guy was coming for them, and they were the last survivors, then that means that they had gone there...

Clint raised his hand. "What war? What camp? Who did they lose? What? I'm sorry, but you lost me after you said that some tartar sauce was going to wage war on us. I'm just a big ball of confusion right now."

Percy looked helplessly at Nico. They seemed to have a telepathic conversation, including lots of pointing and sighs. Eventually, Nico stood and began.

"A few months ago, this whole thing happened when Percy and this kid from this roman camp were switched. Oh yeah, and there's a camp that we go to every summer that's like a safe haven for demigods, but it's all greek. But anyway, Percy and that dude, named Jason Grace, were switched. This forced the greek and roman camps to meet up and supposedly switch them around."

"So like the movie the Parent Trap?" Bruce clarified. Nico looked at Percy with a clueless expression. Percy then answered, just saying "yeah, like that."

"Anyway," Nico continued, "Jason and Percy were then chosen to go on this quest with these other five half-bloods. Piper Mclean, Leo Valdez, Annabeth Chase, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Lev-" Nico's voice cracked and he cleared his throat, "Hazel Levesque. They were meant to stop Gaea from rising, which they did, but got sidetracked. Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, was chosen to find the Athena Parthenos. She succeeded, but... when we were getting the Athena Parthenos aboard, she got dragged into Tartarus and Percy went with her.

"They needed to close the Doors of Death on the other side, while we had to shut them on the side above world. After both the sides were shut, they had to stop Gaea from rising. We... we won but all of the seven except Percy died."

When Nico was done explaining, Tony had more questions than before. What happened in Tartarus? Where were these camps? What are they like? Who are the seven's godly parents? Was Piper Mclean the daughter of Tristian Mclean? How did they all die? Why did Nico keep switching between 'they' and 'we' during the story? Why was it Jason and Percy who were chosen to be the switcheroo people? Nico had gone to Tartarus, if he was to be a survivor, so when did he go, if he didn't go with Percy and that Anna girl? What was it like down there?

Tony opened his mouth to voice his questions when Percy interrupted. "I don't want to talk about down there, so please don't ask. You guys don't want to know. And I don't want to talk about the ones that died."

Natasha suddenly stood and walked to where Nico was standing. She pulled him into a hug. Nico very quickly made it clear that he DID NOT WANT THIS so Nat let him go. She then turned to Percy and hugged him. He was more chill about it, and then Steve joined the hug. The rest of them (minus Loki and Nico) then joined in on this giant group hug.

"Guys," Tony heard Percy say, a slight quiver in his voice, "Get off me. Now."

The sudden mood change was startling, and they retreated, leaving Percy sitting on his arm chair breathing heavily and looked at the ground. "Sorry you guys, I just can't handle being restrained. I wasn't like that before. I'm sorry." He glanced up at them apologetically.

"It's completely understandable," Natasha replied, "You don't have to be sorry." Bruce nodded in agreement.

Percy yawned. "Well, I'm going to bed, good night! You going back to camp, Nico?"

"Yeah, I'll visit soon. IM me if you need to," Nico answered, disappearing into the shadows. Steve stared at the place where Nico had been.

"You didn't tell me he had powers," he muttered.

"Yeah, well. Night!" Percy responded, running off to his room.


	8. Chapter Seven

Percy POV

Percy had trouble falling asleep that night. He was anxious about what the Avengers were going to ask tomorrow. Tony had questions, he knew that. The whole time Nico had been explaining everything, he had been opening and closing his mouth and holding his hand up in a 'can I ask a question' kind of way.

Percy finally drifted off at around 2 am (they had finished talking around 11 pm) and entered the realm of stupid Tartarus.

"Ah ha, our toy has arrived!" Tartarus bellowed, "I assume you've found out about my little plan...?"

Percy didn't speak. He was pretty sure it would just make it worse. Tartarus seemed in a good mood, which was bad for Percy. He was crueler than usual, and when Percy awoke, he was hurting everywhere. It was as if he had gotten a really bad sunburn all over his body.

He stumbled to the shower and breathed a sigh of satisfaction when the water relieved him of all pain. He did his usual morning routine, and found Steve in the kitchen again. Today he was making bacon, eggs, and toast.

"Are you coming with me again?" Percy asked, making sure to be loud when he walked to a chair and sat down as to not startle him again. Steve looked at Percy, first confused then remembering the sunrise thing.

"Uh, yeah sure. If you want me to, if you don't want me to then I won't. I don't want to intrude-"

"No, it's cool. I invited you, remember?" Percy reminded Steve, waving his hands around to insure his 'chillness.' Steve half smiled, and served a large amount of food to Percy. He then gave himself a large plate and sat next to him. They ate in silence and when they finished they went to the roof.

There was a moment when they just sat, watching the sky, then Steve turned to Percy and asked, "can I ask some personal questions? If you don't want me to, I won't. If you don't want to answer then you can just pass."

Percy thought for a second. He figured it sounded like a good enough deal. He would always be able to pass, and there was something probably major that he forgot to tell them about himself. He nodded.

"Okay then. Um, what's the whole... elevator thing?" Steve started out.

Percy looked at the sun, steadily making its way above the horizon. It was a beautiful day, clear and a slight breeze that felt good against his skin. "Yeah, that's from the Doors of Death. In order to escape the pit, we had to close the doors, and they were basically an elevator. Every time I'm in one it reminds me of that. It's stupid, having a fear of elevators. But whatcha gonna do about it."

Steve nodded. He too watched the sun, climbing the sky. "What about this? Watching the sunrise everyday. I never realized how amazing it was before this."

Percy smiled at the memory of Annabeth's eyes lighting up whenever she would see the sunrise. His smile faltered with the thought of Annabeth. Stupid Percy, he scolded himself. Whenever you think of Annabeth you shouldn't be sad. She wouldn't want you to be depressed. She's in a better place now. She's happy.

Percy didn't notice how sad he was until a tear fell on his hand. He quickly wiped off his face and took a deep breath, regaining his composure. "I... I used to watch them with my girlfriend. She made me read The Outsiders and afterwards we made it a tradition. I loved her so much." He explained, whispering the last part.

Steve side-eyed Percy, looking worried. Percy swallowed and waved his arm, motioning for him to continue.

"What... happened between you two?"

"She died." Percy responded shortly. He stared out at the city, not looking at Steve. He would have this face that said 'oh no you poor baby I feel so bad let me huuggggg.' He was surprised when Steve didn't say anything. Or do anything. Percy glanced at him, and he was just wearing an emotion of... either sympathy or empathy (pause where the author looks up the difference)... Empathy. It's empathy.

"All the people I cared about or even knew are all dead by now. Or they're all really old."

"Did you just call yourself really old?" Percy asked, smiling a tiny bit.

"Yeah, well I am a hundred something. I'd say that's really old, wouldn't you?" Steve responded, laughing. Percy's kind-of-smile turned into a real smile, even though the sorrow was still visible in his eyes.

By this time, the sun had fully risen, and they just sat there, gazing at the busy streets of New York City.

"This isn't really 'personal' per say, but what's your summer camp like?" Steve questioned.

Percy's eyes lit up, "It's amazing. Every week or so we have a huge game of capture the flag. The whole camp plays, cabins split up. The camp director is Dionysus, the god of wine. We just call him Mr. D. Also Chiron, and he's a centaur. He's like everyone's dad. We're all separated into cabins based off our godly parent. It smells like strawberries, because of the huge strawberry patch we have. It's protected by a tree and now also a giant statue of Athena. There are all sorts of greek and sometimes roman creatures, not just half-bloods. Grover, one of my best friends, is a satyr meaning he's half human half goat. He's dating Juniper, who's a dryad. I have a pet pegasus Blackjack, who doesn't stay at camp all the time, but he visits. My half brother is a cyclops. I just love it there. It's my home."

Steve was staring at Percy. "Alright, I have many questions," he started, and Percy grinned. "One, how is your brother a cyclops? That makes no sense whatsoever."

"Dude, I'm related to all horses. My father is a god. How is it so insane that I have a cyclops for a brother?"

Steve looked even more baffled. "You're related to all horses???"

Percy laughed at his expression. "Yeah, sure! Wanna meet my pegasus? I can call him over if you want."

"That was going to be my next question! You have a pet pegasus? I didn't know they were even real!"

Percy laughed again. "Sure they are! I'll call him over and you can meet him."

"Great idea, but first let me get the others."

Percy was left on the roof. Mostly everyone was asleep, it being 6:30 in the morning. He figured it was going to be a while. Hey! Blackjack! He thought, trying to get a hold of Blackjack. He didn't think anyone would want to just watch him standing there with his eyes closed. Suddenly, Blackjack's "voice" sounded in his mind.

Yeah boss?

Yeah, hey! Could you come over? I'm at the Avengers Tower.

Sure thing, boss! You got donuts for me?

Er, no. I'll get you some though.

Percy felt a tap on his shoulder and had to refrain from flinching. His skin was still tender from the dreams. He opened his eyes and the Avengers and Loki were standing in front of him, looking tired and holding cups of coffee.

"This had better be good. I woke up 3 hours early for this." Tony grumbled, holding two giant cups of coffee, one of which looked almost gone already.

"Um yeah. It wasn't my idea to wake you up though, so don't blame me if it's not what you wanted."

"What is it that we're supposed to be... wanting?" Natasha asked, looking bleary eyed. Before Percy could say, Clint let out a very (not) manly scream and pointed at the sky behind Percy. Blackjack had arrived.

"That's what!" Percy exclaimed, running over to Blackjack as he landed.

"WHAT IS THAT???" Clint yelled, backing away towards the elevator. Bruce and Nat were slowly joining him, looking warily at Blackjack. Tony was just staring and gaping. Thor and Loki looked gazed at blackjack, looking impressed.

"This," Percy patted Blackjack's back, "is my trusty steed, Blackjack. He's a pegasus."

Aw thanks boss! You think I'm trusty?

"Of course I do. You're here now, right?"

I guess so. Say, you got any donuts, boss?

Percy humphed. "Not now. I already told you. I'll get them later."

"Percy, are you... talking to it?" Bruce questioned, looking at him as if he was partially insane.

Blackjack snorted. Did he just call me an 'it'? I am a he, not an it. A mighty pegasus! Not an it!

"Hey calm down," Percy told Blackjack. He turned to Bruce. "Yeah, I can speak horse. Or anything related to horse. And fish. Or any swimming thing." Percy clarified. Bruce only nodded, mumbling "Okay. Okay. This isn't the weirdest thing that's happened."

"Can I..." Steve took a slow step forward, outstretching his arm slightly.

"OH! Yeah. Don't worry, he won't bite. He won't bite, will he?" Percy added the last part, glaring the slightest bit at Blackjack.

Sure. But if you want me to bite them boss, I totally could.

Steve approached Blackjack carefully, then pet his mane. Tony then came to his senses and grinned like a madman.

"I didn't know they were real! So because they're greek they exist? Does that mean unicorns exist? How'd you know he was coming?" He bombarded Percy with questions, examining Blackjack as if he was an amazing painting.

"Yes, yes, and because I called him telepathically." Percy answered.

"You have telepathy???" Bruce exclaimed.

Percy smirked and tapped his temple and just said, "to some extent."

"To what extent? Can you read minds? Can you talk to anything in your head? Can you control people?" Natasha apparently didn't like the idea of telepathy, considering her reaction. Clint also tensed at the thought, then glared at Loki.

"Woah woah woah, sorry. I didn't know it was such a touchy subject. Yeah, I have telepathy to some extent, but that's only for sea creatures and horse related beings. Sorry."

Clint shook his head, saying, "It's fine. It's just that we have some bad expirience with mind control thanks to someone."

"Not my fault." Loki muttered under his breath, looking irritated.

"Of course it wasn't, brother. And no one is saying that is either, are they." Thor replied, giving Clint a hard look.

Clint just raised his hands in surrender, still frowning at Loki.

What's up with the gods? Blackjack nickered uncomfortably.

Surprisingly, Loki spoke, "I am Loki, god of mischief and deception amongst other things. This is Thor Odinson, god of thunder."

Thanks Loki dude, Blackjack responded. Loki nodded in acknowledgment.

"Wait a second. You can understand Blackjack?" Percy asked, looking at Loki. He nodded. "How?" Percy questioned. Loki just shrugged.

\---LINE BREAK 'CAUSE I'M SUPER LAZY AND DON'T FEEL LIKE WRITING MORE DIALOG. JUST ASSUME BLACKJACK LEFT AND NOTHING ELSE REALLY HAPPENED. SORRY!---

After Blackjack departed with a full stomach of donuts, Percy, Loki and the Avengers went down to the living room. Steve then left for his daily run. Tony and Bruce went to the lab to science together, and Clint and Nat were down in the gym. They seemed to like it down there a lot. That left Thor, Loki, and Percy to do whatever.

Percy personally wanted to IM his friends, well, the friends he had left. He hadn't talked to Reyna, Thalia, or Grover in forever, so he walked towards his room. He was then stopped by Thor. A very disgruntled Loki was behind him.

"I am sorry Perseus, but I am in dire need of the popped tarts and I need to go to the store. Are you willing to look after Loki for me?"

"I was going to make some calls..." Percy was cut off by Thor waving his hands.

"You can call your friends later, can you not? I just need someone to watch Loki. You are the only one who tolerates him, so please, son of Jack?"

"Fine. But you owe me, I really wanted to talk to them peeps."

"Yes yes, here you go!" Thor promptly shoved Loki in Percy's direction and took off. He shouted over his shoulder, "I am sorry brother, but the popped tarts are calling me!"

Loki sighed and crossed his arms. Percy had no clue at what to do. The last time they had been together for an extent of time Loki had asked about his scars, which he still didn't know how he knew about them, and that led to a few very awkward moments.

"So. What do you want to do? We can watch a movie, play a game, try and catch up on what's happening on social media which I had been meaning to do, actually. I haven't used a phone in forever. Oh well. We could..." Percy looked around the living room, searching for anything for them to do.

"A movie sounds good." Loki quietly answered. Percy was relieved he wouldn't have to come up with more things to do. He was running out.

"Awesome. What movie is your favorite?" He asked.

"Don't know. I didn't have technology on Asgard."

"A Pixar movie it is then. Which looks the most interesting?" He motioned to the Pixar section of the DVDs. They ended up wasting the rest of the day on movies. The others had joined, as they too loved movies. They took a few breaks for lunch and dinner, but they had made them as short as possible. Somewhere between 11 and 12 people had started going to bed. Percy felt the most relaxed he had in a long time, and of course, he just had to accidentally fall asleep on the couch at that time.

Loki POV

Loki was captivated by watching Joy and Bing Bong try over and over to escape the Memory Dump. He was sitting on an armchair, curled up and hugging a pillow. He watched as Bing Bong sacrificed himself, and felt great sorrow when his last words were 'take her to the moon for me.'

It was just then when he heard a whimper. He assumed it was just Percy's response to the movie, but when he glanced over, Percy was asleep and in the fetal position. Another whimper escaped his lips, and he visibly winced.

Loki frowned, walking over and kneeling before the boy. Suddenly, Percy started twisting and thrashing around. Loki fell backwards, staring at him. Whatever he was dreaming was not... ideal. Loki racked his brain to find out what to do. He eventually sat back up, and placed a hand of Percy's forehead and entered his mind. What he saw was sickening.

A huge purple monster thing, which he concluded was Tartarus, was dragging a knife repeatedly across Percy's bare back. Loki's eyes widened then narrowed. He drew himself out of Percy's mind, then woke him up. He shook the young hero awake and then stepped back. Percy breathed heavily, sitting up and gripping the edge of the couch. He glanced up at Loki.

"Thank you. 'M sorry you had to see that."

Loki nodded and went back to his armchair, pretending like nothing had happened. Neither of them slept for the rest of the night. They just stayed up watching movie after movie after movie.

When Steve came down to find Percy laughing his head off at something Dory had said and Loki's soft smile, he looked startled but said nothing.


	9. Chapter Eight

Percy POV

Percy yawned and stretched. They had spent around 21 hours just watching movies. Percy decided it was enough and tried to find Thor. He wanted to call Reyna and Thalia, and Thor owed him.

"HEY! THOR!" Percy yelled, not to anything, just wondering if he'd hear him and come. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed an apple for breakfast, waiting. There was a pause, then he heard loud footsteps and Thor ran into the room, brandishing Mjolnir threateningly.

"WHAT IS IT, SON OF JACK? ARE YOU IN NEED OF HELP?" He boomed, looking around the room for any sign of danger.

Percy suppressed a laugh and responded, "No, I just thought I should tell you that I'm going to call my friends, and I guess someone needs to watch Loki. And you owe me so I figured you would do the job? Or find someone that will?"

Thor lowered his hammer and nodded his head. Percy cheered and ran to his room. He lifted his mattress and fished out a couple of Drachmas. He went to the bathroom and created a mist by the window.

He flipped the coin over in his hand a few times, trying to decide who to contact first. He threw the coin into the mist. "Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow," he chanted, "please accept my offering. Show me Reyna at... Camp Jupiter maybe."

The image shimmered and Reyna appeared, discussing something with a roman kid. She saw the IM and quickly dismissed the kid, then turned to greet Percy.

"Percy, what is it?"

"Nothing! I just thought I would check up on you, that's all. It's been like a week or something and I just wanted to make sure you're alright. How's immortality been treating you?" Percy asked, happy to see her face.

"Oh. Good. It's been almost normal, but I don't get hurt, really. I got stronger, but besides that I didn't get any extra powers, only enhancing of the one that I already had." Reyna explained.

"The one you already had...?" Percy asked, not knowing what she meant.

"Um, yeah," Reyna looked down briefly, making it obvious she didn't want to talk about it. Percy didn't push for answers. "What about you? I heard you were visiting your parents. Well, non-godly parents."

Percy swallowed hard, grief washing over him. He looked up for a moment, telling himself not to cry, and said, "I was going to, but they um, they're gone. I'm with some other people now, mortals and a Norse god. They're superheroes."

Reyna looked concerned, "I'm sorry I asked. Are you... okay?"

Percy forced a smile and responded, "Yeah. Of course. I'm fine."

Someone from Reyna's side of the message called for her, and she looked apologetically at Percy.

"I have to go, sorry Percy."

Percy nodded understandingly, "sure, I'll see you later," and he swiped through the mist. The message disappeared, and he made a new mist, intent on calling Thalia.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Thalia, maybe at Camp Half-Blood. Or some woods somewhere," Percy said, throwing a Drachma into the mist.

Thalia appeared around a campfire cheering, grouped around a hunteress with what had to be at least 10 jumbo marshmallows stuffed into her mouth. She was stuffing another one into her mouth, when Percy shouted, "Thalia! Is this a bad time?"

At once, everyone was on their feet, bows drawn and facing the Iris Message. Percy held his hands up in surrender, and even though he wasn't there in person, he felt like he was about to be killed. "Sorry ladies, I didn't mean to intrude, I just wanted to check up on Thalia," Percy assured, and Thalia gestured for the girls to put their weapons down. They did so, and went back to eating marshmallows.

"Hey Kelp Head. What's up," Thalia asked, sitting down on a log.

"I'm fine! I just wanted to check up on how you were holding up," Percy responded. Thalia had practically exploded when she heard about the news of Jason's death. Thinking she lost him once was enough, but actually losing things was worse. She then had left, her hunters following, and Percy hadn't heard from her since.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I just had to let off some steam, you know?" Thalia told him, twisting her hands together, "How have you been? How's Camp?"

"Dunno. I'm not there, I was kidnapped by some mortal superheroes. They thought i was a terrorist and then I told them I wasn't and now they've adopted me."

Thalia smirked, "The hero of Olympus, beng kidnapped by some mortals? Wow. And here I was thinking you might be able to grow out of your seaweed brainlyness."

Percy pretended to pout, saying, "They had a god on their side, and they had cool tech stuff. And a guy that had arrows. And they were good at fighting. And they were mortals, so riptide couldn't hurt them."

Thalia laughed and Percy cracked a smile.

"So, have you heard from camp, then? If you aren't there, then whatever shall they do? Their lord and saviour is MIA! I bet there's chaos," Thalia teased.

"I'm not sure, I should probably check in them too. I just spoke to Reyna, she seemed kinda busy. I'm guessing Camp is worse, if the romans are busy, the greeks will be freaking out, maybe."

At the mention of Reyna, Thalia's cheeks turned a bit pink, "So, uh, how was she? Reyna, I mean."

"She seemed fine," Percy answered, one eyebrow raised, smirking a little, "Why do you want to know?"

"No reason, she's a friend, that's all. Can't friends care about how each other are doing?"

"Uh huh. I thought you pledged to be single forever?"

Thalia's already pink cheeks turned a bright red, "who said anything about dating?"

"The way you asked about Reyna did!"

"Well. Even if I did want to date Reyna, which I don't, the pledge didn't say anything about girls. Only about boys."

"Oh, I see," Percy said, laughing a bit. "So hypothetically you could date Reyna?"

"Shut up Kelp Head."

"Could you?"

Thalia huffed, cheeks still red. "Yes. Hypothetically."

Percy smiled in triumph, and Thalia blushed even harder.

"Okay. What about you? What've you been doing?" Percy asked.

"Oh, well the gods broke their promise. There are still monsters attacking, so we've been tracking those and killing them." Thalia replied, her cheeks going back to her normal skin color.

"Yeah, no kidding. There was an attack in Central Park, tons of telekhines just attacking people and trees." All of a sudden, there was a commotion from what seemed to be the living room. "Okay, so on that happy note, I should probably go."

"See you around Perce. Don't die any time soon!" And with that, Thalia swiped through the message, severing the connection.

Percy ran to the living room, only to find Tony, Nat and Clint arguing over something. Apparently it was something nobody wanted to do because things were getting quite heated, meaning people were standing on tables, pointing and shouting at each other.

"I'M WAY TOO SLEEP DEPRIVED! I COULD PASS OUT ANY SECOND!" Shouted Tony, who was standing on the kitchen island.

"AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT, HUH? AND WHY DOESN'T NAT JUST DO IT?" Clint shouted back, standing on a coffee table across the room. Natasha, standing on a kitchen chair, looked at him dangerously. "I take it back, Nat doesn't need to! But I DON'T WANT TO!"

"Hang on guys. What's happening?" Percy yelled over everyone, leaping onto the couch with his arms outstretched to all the different people.

"SOMEONE NEEDS TO GO GROCERY SHOPPING, AND IT AIN'T GUNNU BE ME!"

"OKAY! Calm down! Why not, um... I don't know, Steve? Bruce maybe?"

"Steve gets all confused with all the different kinds of food and it takes him forever because he doesn't know what's good and what's bad and he gets sidetracked with all the 'high prices'. Also he gets gross healthy food." Natasha explained, glaring at Tony and Clint.

"How about Bruce?" Percy inquired.

"He did it last time, it wouldn't be fair," she shrugged.

"Thor?"

"Same as Steve. It takes him forever and he gets super confused. Or just buys Poptarts."

"What about you?"

Nat just gave Percy a look and he just mumbled "sorry, sorry." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, so how about this. Clint goes," he held up his hand as Clint started to protest, "but Tony, you have to go and actually sleep. You can't just keep complaining about how sleep deprived you are then not sleep when you have the chance."

Tony and Clint glared at this, but nobody said anything. Clint just got off the coffee table, grabbed some keys, and walked out the door. Percy looked at Tony, and Tony just climbed down from the island and went off to his room.

Percy sighed. It was 8:00 in the morning, and he was bored. There wasn't very much to do in the tower, aside from training, swimming, and watching movies/tv shows. He decided to train, and climbed the stairs down to the training room.

\---LINE BREAK WHILE PERCY TRAINS 'N STUFF---

After an hour, Percy decided that it was enough for now. He'd go back later, but he thought that maybe he'd beat up enough equipment for the time being. He climbed the stairs to the main floor and met Clint grumpily unpacking the groceries.

"So... was shopping the worst thing in the world?" Percy asked, and Clint spun on the spot, clearly startled.

"Yes. There were people," He replied.

"Oh, the HORROR!" Percy exclaimed, "how dare there be people! In a public environment too. How rude of them."

"I meant fans. People who wanted autographs and to thank me for you know, saving the world? I bet you don't have that." Clint bragged.

"No, I usually instead get monsters trying to kill me or telling me how morbidly they're going to murder me and serve my head on a silver platter to their master," Percy explained, completely calmly. Clint gave him a horrified look and continued to put the food away.

"Well, I'm going to go shower and then go out. If anyone asks me where I am, just tell them not to worry or something." Percy told him, running off to his room.

NATASHA POV

When Natasha got back from a mini-mission, just briefly interrogating some serial killer, everyone was wandering pointlessly around the tower.

Clint was watching Supernatural on the couch, Steve was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper and occasionally giving the TV questioning looks, Tony was drinking some coffee and playing with some holograms trying to improve his suit, Bruce was playing some game on a laptop, and Thor was trying to teach Loki how to play Uno. Percy was nowhere in sight, though Nat assumed he was just training or something.

She was concerned, therefore, when she went down to the training room to find it empty. She checked the swimming pool, and when he wasn't there either, she went back up to the living room.

"Where's Percy?" she asked the room, not to anyone in particular.

"Oh, he just said he went out and for us to not worry," Clint responded, mouth full of Doritos.

"When was this?" Nat questioned. She didn't want the teenager to be getting hurt or for anything to happen to him.

"What time is it?"

"Noon-thirty," replied Tony. Steve gave him a questioning look, and Tony said, "you know... noon is 12, so 12:30. It's simple logic, right guys?"

"I understood!" Clint exclaimed, raising his hand. Nat just shook her head in disbelief as Bruce nodded and Tony looked back at Steve, "See bud? It's just you not being 'hip with the kids'."

"Oh yeah. So that means he left like three-ish hours ago," Clint responded.

"And none of you were maybe concerned with the fact that he left 3 hours ago, without telling us where he went?"

"He said not to worry!" Clint said, indignantly.

"Oh, yeah, and a teenager telling you not to worry, that they're going to be okay and that they're going out and don't then bother telling you where they're off to, that usually strikes you as reliable?" Natasha challenged. Clint stayed silent.

"Alright then, Miss Needs-to-know-where-Percy-is, what do you think we should do?" Asked Tony, looking up from his calculations.

"Look for him? Make sure some monsters aren't attacking him?"

"He'll be fine. He's a teenager, he probably wanted to go do something with that friend of his, and if some monsters attack him, he's got powers! He took down more telekhinie-things than all of us combined." Bruce reassured her.

Natasha let it go, though still didn't like it. She joined Thor and Loki's Uno game, checking the clock every 3 minutes. Eventually, Tony and Bruce also joined, and Clint came in after his Supernatural episode was done. Steve looked like he was enjoying just watching.

Clint kept yelling at Loki for cheating, and Thor would tell him to be nicer, even though Loki really was getting too many skips for it to be chance. Tony kept laying down +2 cards on Bruce, making him have half the deck in his hands.

Nat was too busy to register any of this, intent on watching the clock. After 2 more hours passed, she stood up.

"I'm going out to look for Percy. He's been gone for 5 hours," she said, walking to the door. At that moment, Percy stepped into the room.

"Sup Perce," Tony asked, giving him a small wave. Bruce and Steve just nodded.

"Hey, uh, you might want to watch out..." Clint said, nodding behind Percy at Natasha. She had been standing there, waiting to be noticed. Her arms were crossed and she was making her 'I am about to kill you or I might not I am still debating it' look. Percy looked, and when he saw her, he took a step back.

"Woah, what'd I do?"

"I'll tell you what. You leave, tell Clint you're going out, I mean Clint? Not someone more reliable?" She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air, ignoring Clint's cry of "Hey!" and went on. "The you disappear for five hours? And when you come back you just act normal, and you expect us to be okay with it?"

"Hey, I told you not to worry, right? I wasn't about to go get myself killed!"

"Oh, yeah! That too! Newsflash, telling someone 'not to worry' isn't going to make the not worry. Especially a kid saying it, that just causes pure panic most of the time!"

"I'm not a kid! Stop calling me that!" He then started waving his hands around, seemingly ranting in some language Natasha didn't know.

"Hey. Hey! Stop! I-I'm sorry." Nat looked at him, trying to figure out what language he was speaking while also making a mental note to never call him 'kid' again. She looked over at the rest of the Avengers and they all looked confused and slightly cautious as well.

"What language was that?" Tony asked, interested.

"What? Oh," Percy responded, rubbing his head, closing his eyes, still visibly upset. "Ancient Greek. It's hardwired into my brain, that's why I have dyslexia, along with most other demigods." He said, waving his hand around in circles, apparently trying to convey his message through vague hand motions.

They all just nodded, and Percy made his way to the kitchen. He looked through the cupboards, and ended up just grabbing a poptart. Thor's indignant scoff could be heard throughout the whole room, but Percy just looked at him challengingly while opening it and taking a bite.

"Sorry. Guys. I didn't mean to explode like that, I'm just... I've had enough crap happen to me these past few weeks. I just... Nevermind. I'm sorry."

Natasha wondered what he meant when he said he'd had enough crap happen to him, then she remembered Nico's story from two days ago, where Percy had been in a war and lost all his closest friends. She guessed that was the crap he was referring to. She nodded in understanding and sat at the table, dealing a new game of Uno.

"Say what you will about it, but you can play this game for a day straight and it won't get old," Tony said, picking up his hand. To this, Nat raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it can. After this hand I'm quitting."

Tony gasped and heald a hand to his chest, pretending to be deeply offended.

"I too am growing tired of this game, I will also quit next round." Thor boomed, Loki rolling his eyes at Thor's way of speaking.

Percy watched the game with amusement. When the game had finished, Natasha headed to the elevator to the training room. Percy ran down the stairs, shouting something about the pool. Nat figured he was going to swim, and decided to join. Who knows, it could be fun. She instead walked to her room to change into her bathing suit, then went back to the elevator, telling the others that if they wanted to join them they were going to swim.

When Natasha walked into the pool, she saw Percy in the middle of a miniature hurricane, eyes closed. He'd looked almost peaceful, if it wasn't for the raging hurricane around him. Nat observed with awe and interest. He opened his eyes and saw her staring and quickly stopped the storm, the water drenching the floor.

"Hi. I-I didn't see you there. Um, I was just practicing. I do that sometimes to blow off steam or whatever. Sorry if I freaked you out or something." Percy rambled on, swimming to the edge of the pool and climbing out. He was wearing his normal clothes, a t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans, but when he stepped out of the pool, he was completely dry.

"No. I wasn't freaked out, it quite cool actually. I just thought you might want company so I came down to swim with you. The others might be coming as well," Natasha explained. As if on queue, Tony, Steve, Clint, Bruce, Thor and Loki strolled in, Tony and Thor chatting about something involving lots of lightning and charging supply units. Loki didn't have a swimsuit on, and just walked over to a chair and sat. He didn't look very pleased about it, but did it all the same.

Bruce paused when he saw Percy and Natasha talking, "Sorry, are we intruding on something?" He asked, politely.

"No. I was just making sure she knew I was sorry. I didn't mean to be rude," Percy quickly lied. After this, he simply fell backwards into the pool. He sank down to the bottom before then spinning upwards and shooting out of the water into the air. Natasha could hear him laugh in joy while he did a flip before landing on the water again.

"Show off," Tony mumbled, then jumped in himself. Soon after, they were all in the pool, splashing around and having different types of contests.

"I bet none of you can hold your breath longer than me." Percy stated, eyes glinting mischievously.

"Well yeah duh! You're the son of Poseidon! You can probably breathe underwater," Clint exclaimed.

"He can. I found him sleeping at the bottom of the pool and he was completely fine," Tony confirmed.

"Fine. I guess I have a slight advantage. How about a splash contest? Or any contest really?"

"HA! Yeah, like you'd lose a splash contest," Natasha scoffed, thinking about how he'd summoned a hurricane, and he'd demolish any of them in a single sweep of his hand.

Percy gave a slight sigh, "Is there any contest I can take part in?"

"Do you just want to show off some more," Bruce asked.

"What? No. I just want a reason to use my powers. I feel like I'm out of shape for some reason. I mean, besides the few hours of training here, the telekhine attack, and a bit of training at camp before you all came and kidnapped me that's all the action I've had this week. I'm not used to things being this... easy, almost."

They stared at him, surprised that he could call that week easy. "Um, okay. Show us the biggest splash you can then!" Bruce suggested.

"No. Sorry, but I'd honestly probably destroy this building."

To this, Tony raised a hand, "I vote you don't do that."

"You can really do that?" Clint exclaimed.

Percy flushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck. He nodded, "Yeah, I can make hurricanes and. Stuff. So yeah I could do that."

"How we get out of the pool and you do something cool," Tony suggested.

Percy nodded and the group minus Percy got out of the pool.

"What do you guys want to see?" Percy asked, looking slightly nervous.

"Whatever you want," Steve responded.

Percy took a deep breath and turned facing away from them. He raised his arms and the water started to swirl. The swirls became more and more violent, creating a whirlpool. Somehow, Percy stayed stationary this whole time. The whirlpool then gradually started becoming a small hurricane, Percy being in the middle of it. It then calmed down for the most part and some blobs of water flew out of the water into the air, and they started forming shapes, such as fish and pegasi. They swam/flew around in the air for a while, then went back into the water. Percy turned to look at them, who were all awestruck. He looked tired, and he swam to the edge of the pool.

"So..." he began, "was that good?"

"That was AMAZING! How'd you do that? Well, obviously because Poseidon and all that but that was so cool!" Tony yelled.

"It was quite miraculous, Perseus," Thor said, nodding with an impressed look. Clint was just staring, jaw slack.

"Good job, Percy," was all Bruce said.

Natasha's eyebrows were raised in impressment, and she nodded. It was quite miraculous, she had to agree with Thor on that. She wondered how powerful he could be if he was pushed to his limits. He said he could take down this building, but he'd said it so casually it made her think he could do more than he let on. He also said he could make hurricanes and stuff; could he make tsunamis?

They spent the rest of their day in the pool, doing various pool games. Marco polo, the category game, and seeing how long they could hold their breath, excluding Percy on that last one. They ended up eating around 8 and going to bed soon after.


	10. Chapter Nine

PERCY POV

Percy went to bed at eight, having no intention to sleep. Sure, he'd pulled basically an all-nighter last night, but anything was better than constant pain and waking up sore all over.

He wandered around his room for a bit, observing a bookshelf that was lined against one wall. It had lots of books, but Percy couldn't read any of the titles without getting a serious headache. He found a desk with a phone and some high-tech computer things, which he had no idea how to work.

He resorted to doing a simple routine for a while, just doing push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, and whatever other exercises came to mind. When he got too tired, he sat on his bed, refusing to let himself drift off. Of course, when he had nothing to do on the bed but think, he would start thinking about his friends and family he'd lost.

When he had left the building, for five hours according to Natasha, he had gone to the cemetery. He'd just sat in the grass, having a mental argument with himself, which was basically himself yelling at himself at how he could have saved them. He wasn't fast enough for Hazel, he didn't know how he could have saved Leo, but he was sure he could have. He wasn't fast enough for Piper or Jason, he wasn't good enough for Frank, he wasn't fast enough for Annabeth. He even could have gotten home in time to save his parents, if he could have just gotten out of Tartarus earlier.

He pushed these thoughts away and started pacing around the room. He walked over to his window, which took up a considerable amount of one of his walls. He stared out it, looking up at the stars and thinking about Bob. Another soul he couldn't save. He looked to the ocean, and seemingly out of nowhere, there was a burst of fire on the shore.

Percy scowled. If there were any monsters out there, wherever they may be, he decided that he wasn't going to let them hurt anyone anymore. By this time, it was 12:15 and he assumed everyone would be in their rooms. He opened his door as quietly as he could, snuck over to the stairs and leapt down them three at a time.

He ran the way to the beach, determined to get there before the monster left. Once he arrived, he stayed back, choosing to observe before going full on attack mode. He didn't want to start attacking some college kids having a midnight party on the beach or something.

There was another burst of flames, but all he could see was a very mangled piece of metal. He approached warrily, carrying riptide at his side in pen form.

Once he got closer, he could hear two voices, one male and one female.

"I told you to fix him when you had the chance, over in Albania!"

"Yeah, well he didn't seem that bad then, I'll just need a few hours and we'll be back in the air."

Percy's breath caught in his throat, and he swallowed very hard. He edged around the large, broken, metal dragon and was instantly attacked with several wrenches and hammers.

"Wait. Wait! Don't attack, it's me," he shouted, and the flying mechanical tools stopped. There was a pause, then, "Percy?"

"Leo," Percy breathed, and Leo crushed his ribs with a giant bear hug.

"Oh my gods. Percy! You're alive, thank Hephestus! Where's everyone else? Jason, Piper, Haz-" Leo was quickly cut off due to the fact that Percy's fist had just connected with his gut. He wheezed, bent over and clutching his stomach, "Yeah I guess I deserved that," weakly.

"Percy?" Came another voice, this one female. Percy looked around, and his eyes fell on Calypso. He just nodded at her, unsure of what else to do. There was an awkward silence.

"So, where are the others?" Leo continued with his previous question, "are they okay? Gods, I can't wait to see their faces when I come back..."

"So you're going back to camp?" Percy asked, avoiding the question.

"Well, yeah. Why? Aren't you staying there?"

"No, I've joined the Avengers."

Leo's eyes bulged. "The AVENGERS? Like, Iron Man, AKA Tony Stark Avengers?"

Percy smiled at Leo's antics, happy to have one of his friends back, "Yeah, those. They're all really nice people, actually. They first kidnapped me because they thought I was a terrorist but then they figured out I wasn't and... everything's been so insane, Leo."

"Kidnapped? Geez, what was Annabeth's reaction? I bet she was livid."

Percy's mood changed very fast, from smiling and happy to crest-fallen and despair, though he tried his hardest to hide it. Leo wasn't fooled though.

"Percy," Leo asked tentatively, "Did she... make it?"

Percy shook his head. Leo sucked in a breath and took Calypso's hand. The whole time she'd just watched the exchange, looking amused but like she was trying to keep a facade of 'ugh my boyfriend is so annoying (but I love him)'.

"Do you have a place to stay for tonight?" Percy questioned, changing the subject.

"I was going to fix Festus and then we'd go back to camp, but if you think we could crash with the Avengers..." Leo trailed off.

"Yeah, we have plenty of room there, a few floors that aren't even being used. I bet we could somehow get Festus there and maybe Tony'd be able to help you out."

Leo pumped a fist and they set to work, trying to move Festus.

\---WHOOPDEDOO HERE BE A LINE BREAK---

After successfully transferring Festus from the beach to an unused floor of the Avengers Tower (which was a very challenging task, involving several stolen cranes, many bribes, probably breaking close to 1000 laws, and a rubber glove (don't ask)), it was close to close to 5:00.

Percy, Leo, and Calypso used the elevator (Percy didn't have the energy to protest) and went to the main floor. Stained with grease, smudged with dirt, and several cuts and scrapes each, they must have been quite startling for a Steve Rogers just trying to peacefully make some toast.

When they walked into the living room, Steve stared. Leo glanced over, went "Hey look, Captain America," with a goofy grin and a lazy salute before collapsing onto the couch. Calypso just sat down heavily onto an armchair, closing her eyes.

"Uh, Percy, care to explain?" Steve asked, looking at the new guests.

"That's Leo," Percy responded, gesturing to Leo, "and that's Calypso," gesturing to Calypso. Steve looked at him more pointedly, and Percy just walked around him and to the sink. He then proceeded to fill the sink up and stick his head into the water, trying to wake himself up. He took several deep breaths and felt more energized than he had before.

Steve had apparently given up trying to learn about the intruders, and he'd resorted to sitting opposite them on an armchair. Leo was fiddling with a few pieces of machinery, and Calypso was observing the TV remote with interest.

Percy grabbed six slices of toast and threw two at both Calypso and Leo. He walked up to the roof, waiting for the sun to rise, and walked back down 45 minutes later. Natasha was up, watching Calypso and Leo sleeping on the furniture cautiously. Clint was getting some coffee and eyed the guests with curiosity.

"Who are they," came a sleepy question from the doorway, where Tony had just appeared.

"Some of my friends, Leo and Calypso. They needed somewhere to crash. Oh, by the way, we needed to store their giant alive metal dragon somewhere so that's currently on the 5th floor. I hope you don't mind?" Percy answered, watching all eyes turn from Leo and Calypso's sleeping forms to him.

"They have a what now," Tony asked, jaw slightly slack.

"Ask Leo, he'd be able to describe him better. I haven't actually properly met him, he exploded before I could," Percy replied, shrugging, "we spent a long time this morning trying to store him there, so we're all very tired. Just don't bother us."

"Why don't you just sleep," Clint yawned.

"Eh, sleep is overrated, don't you think?"

"No. Sleep is the best thing that ever happened. Ever," was Bruce's response from doorway, behind Tony. He shoved Tony out of the way and grabbed a cup of coffee, then promptly drained the whole cup. He refilled it and drank, still looking exhausted. Percy grinned a little, watching as Bruce finished and refilled it for thirds.

Nat sat on the kitchen island cross legged. "Where's the food," she asked, looking at Steve and Percy, since they were generally the first ones up and in charge of breakfast.

"I'll make it," Percy said, figuring he could just make pancakes. They weren't that hard, and he was sure they had the ingredients. However, Tony raised an eyebrow, giving a disbelieving look.

"You, making food? Somehow I can't imagine it."

"Shut up, It'll be good," was Percy's response. He moved to the kitchen area and shoo-ed everyone out of the way. He started making the batter and ladled it into the frying pans on the stove. He made several batches and when he served them, he was met with lots of questions.

"Why are these pancakes blue?" Clint asked, poking his pancake like it might explode.

"Why wouldn't they be blue?" Percy countered.

"Because normal food usually isn't blue, unless they're blueberries. And these aren't blueberries."

"All food is better when blue. It's just a fact none of you know yet. Try them and then judge my cooking skills," Percy replied, then happily poured a copious amount of syrup on his stack. He felt a pang in his chest when he remembered a scenario very much like this on his trip on the Argo II. "You're drowning them!" Annabeth had protested, to which he had replied, "I'm a Poseidon kid. I can't drown and neither can my pancakes."

Percy looked around at the Avengers (plus Loki), all of which were sitting at the kitchen table. He thought about how lucky he was, to have found these people. He had only known them for less than a week, but he felt close to this amazing, dysfunctional family.

There was an agreement that his pancakes were good, better even than Steve's. Percy saw that as an accomplishment.

A thump was heard from the couch, and there was an audible groan. Leo stood up, and Percy figured he'd just rolled off the couch and woken up.

"Whereami?" Leo asked groggily. He squinted at the Avengers and his face morphed into that of jubilation. He jumped over the back of the couch but stumbled and fell on his face. He quickly got up and looked at Tony and went "YOU'RE TONY STARK."

Tony looked taken aback, and nodded. "And you're the kid that has a dragon in my tower?"

Leo wasn't paying attention though, he was just rambling along about ideas he had about Tony's Iron Man suit. Percy was completely at a loss for what Leo was saying, but Tony looked like he was completely following and occasionally made comments like "I've tried that," or "WOAH GOOD IDEA".

Percy finished his food and put away his dishes. He decided to mayhaps properly introduce Leo and Calypso, who had woken up to all the noise, to the group.

"Leo, as much as I'm sure they all love to hear about how much smarter you are than Tony, they don't actually know you. I figured you'd like to introduce yourself," Percy said, stopping Leo midsentece.

Leo gave an elvish grin and stood where everyone could see him. "Leo Valdez, at your service. AKA, Super-Sized McShizzle, Supreme Commander of the Argo II, Bad Boy Supreme, Commander Tool Belt. Son of Hephestus," and at this, he lit himself on fire.

It was exactly what Percy had been waiting for. He knew Leo would want to mess with them like this, and the Avengers' reactions did not disappoint. Tony leapt up in surprise and backed up against the wall, Bruce gave a cry of shock and fell out of his chair, Clint jumped onto the table for some reason, Natasha followed suit after Tony, back to the window covering one wall. Steve jumped up as well, but looked like he had no idea of what to do to help. Thor shouted out something incomprehensible, probably in a different language, and just stood, staring at Leo. Loki, who wasn't paying very much attention, startled and dropped the knife he was playing with.

Leo extinguished himself and him and Percy doubled over laughing. After the Avengers noticed that he was okay, they stopped looking so panicked and Clint got down from the table.

"You guys- you should have seen your faces! Oh gods, that was funny," Percy gasped, doubled over laughing.

"How the heck did you do that?!?!" Tony exclaimed. Leo smiled a mischievous smile and just said, "Hephestus." Tony looked impressed.

"So Percy told me you have a full sized metal dragon, think we can maybe see that?" Tony asked, an expression of pure excitement on is face.

\---LINE BREAK BECAUSE WHY NOT---

For the rest of the day, Tony and Leo were nowhere to be seen. Leo needed to fix Festus, and Tony was undoubtedly impressed beyond reason. Bruce would occasionally disappear and not come back for an hour, coming back all smudged with grease and dirt.

Calypso got new, not torn up clothes from Natasha, and ended up hanging out with her for the remainder of the day. Percy was slightly terrified at the team they could become if they stayed around each other for long enough, but said nothing of it.

When night fell, Leo was still not ready to leave, and he and Calypso ended up crashing on the couch for the night.

Percy was too exhausted to not sleep, so he slept in the pool that night. It didn't stop the nightmares, but it made them significantly better. Instead of waking up hurting everywhere a whole lot, it was more of a... stubbing your little toe level of pain. Still hurts a ton but not as horrible.

Percy fell asleep thinking things might not be amazing, or even that good, but they were looking up. Maybe he was going to be okay.


	11. Chapter Ten

Percy POV

Percy woke to alarms. They were muffled by the water, but they were definitely alarms. He shot himself swiftly out of the pool and ran up to the main floor. There, everyone else were in their pajamas, though almost fully armed.

Tony had one Iron Man arm on, Nat had two guns by her sides, Clint was struggling to throw his quiver of arrows over his back while getting his bow ready. Steve was holding his shield, Thor was holding his hammer, Loki was holding two daggers, and Leo had one of his hands ignited. Calypso and Bruce were both standing to the side, in awkward fighting positions. Percy uncapped Riptide and looked to everyone, hopeful that they had an explanation.

"Jarvis, what's happening," Tony asked.

"There seems to be seven cheerleaders attempting to breach the doors," Jarvis replied, voice warbling in and out while doing so. Tony pulled up security camera feed, and Kelli, Tammi, Serephone, and three other Empousai were trying to pry open the doors while another distracted with the security guards.

"Schist," Percy mumbled, "alright, I can go try and get rid of them."

"What do you mean when you say 'get rid of them'?" Bruce asked.

"I mean kill them. They're old friends."

"What? Why? They're only cheerleaders. Let the security handle it," Clint protested, "maybe killing them is a little overboard?"

"What? Oh, no no no, you don't get. They're monsters, Empousai to be exact. That's Kelli, Tammi, and I think that one's Serephone. I don't know the other's names, but yeah, they don't like me very much," Percy explained.

"Well... we should help you. I don't want you getting yourself killed because you didn't have backup," Tony told him, getting the rest of his suit on.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. Empousai have Charmspeak, so they can make you do things, such as not attacking them," Percy said.

"We can fight it, or just put in earplugs or something," Tony retorted, refusing to let him go alone. Percy huffed and nodded reluctantly.

"Fine. But don't listen to a thing they say."

They all went down to the ground floor after they finished suiting up/getting dressed. As soon as Kelli saw Percy, who was at the front of the group, she snapped to get the attention of the rest of her friends.

"Percy! How nice to see you again. Tartarus has been so boring without you or that girlfriend of yours! Where's she now? I'd like to run her through, if that's okay with you," Kelli said flirtatiously.

"No, that wouldn't be 'okay with me.' So, if it's okay with you, I'll be killing you again," Percy growled through gritted teeth. Without any warning, Kelli lunged forward and the fight began.

It didn't last very long. There were only seven empousai against the whole team. Tony blasted two with his repulsors, Loki stabbed one, Percy killed three, and Leo tried to burn one and ended up having to smash it repeatedly over the head with a sledgehammer. They all just stood around, looking at the golden dust.

"Well that was better than expected," Clint announced, "I didn't even have to do anything."

"Yeah. They were harder to beat when I was 15. Then it was just Kelli and Tammi, and I almost got expelled from a school I didn't even go to at the time."

"You got expelled before you even went to the school???" Natasha asked, stressing the last part.

"No, my step-dad saved me. He said it was... I don't remember, but he figured it out," Percy assured.

"None of you are injured, right?" Bruce asked, concerned.

"No, I think we're all fine. So... Jarvis, what time is it anyways," Tony yawned.

"About three in the morning sir," Jarvis replied. Tony groaned and trudged away, all adrenaline from the fight drained out of all of them. They all went upstairs using the elevator, Percy taking the stairs, and collapsed on various furniture.

"So... are any of us going to actually go back to bed or..." Leo left the sentence hanging.

"Too far away," Clint mumbled, face pressed into a couch cushion. There were unintelligible sounds of agreement from around the room. Thor seemed to be asleep on an armchair, already snoring loudly.

Percy smiled fondly at his friends. He didn't feel like sleeping anymore, he had gotten almost five hours of sleep, after all. He noticed Leo sitting on an armchair, stroking Calypso's hair as she slept on his lap. Percy suspected Leo had pulled her onto him and she hadn't had the energy to push away. Leo saw Percy watching.

"How's camp been since I died? How's the rest of the seven and people?"

Percy paused. This wasn't going to be easy, for either of them. "Leo, I need to talk to you. Somewhere else, away from people sleeping, maybe?"

Leo looked confused, but agreed and slowly shifted Calypso from his lap to the chair and followed Percy up to the roof. The city was all lit up from the street lights and buildings.

"Leo, there's something you need to know," Percy began, not knowing how to say this. He saw Leo glance at his sideways, concerned. Percy swallowed. "None of them... made it." There was a long pause when neither of them said anything.

"What-what do you mean?" Leo asked, sounding heartbroken.

"I... I mean, all of them. The seven. It was only me. Nico, Reyna, Grover, and Thalia have been helping, but I felt so alone. I still do, but I'm feeling better."

"No." Percy looked over and saw Leo shaking his head furiously. "No, that's not- they can't be dead. No," he stood up and started pacing, tears streaming down his face. He pulled his hands through his hair, still shaking his head.

"Leo..." Percy tried, feeling tears start to well up in his own eyes, "Leo, I-I'm sorry."

Leo didn't reply, but just sat down and leaned against the door leading out to the roof. He sat quietly, then randomly gave a loud cry of anger and dispair, grabbed a screwdriver from his toolbelt and threw it to the other side of the roof as hard as he could. He repeated this action, using various mechanical pieces of equipment. Percy just watched from the side, not stopping him.

His throwing became weaker and weaker, and he eventually came to a stop. His arms fell on the ground and his head dropped to his chest. Percy could hear his uneven and heavy breathing.

"I'm sorry I left," Leo whispered. Percy felt wetness on his cheeks and wiped the tears off his face.

He didn't know how to reply, so he just said, "we should get back inside. I'm sure you need sleep, especially if you're going to Camp tomorrow."

Leo nodded and they both walked inside. Percy started binging Sherlock on a spare laptop as the rest of the group slept. He was just finishing "The Great Game" when Steve woke up. Percy wasn't shocked that he had slept in. He was shocked that it had been so late, though. It was about 8:00, making him have slept three hours past his usual time.

"Mornin'," Percy said as Steve walked to the kitchen and put on some coffee. He nodded and sat at the island.

"Did you sleep at all?" Steve mumbled, rubbing his head.

"I did before the attack. But I got a full five hours of sleep, I'm fine," Percy said dismissively. Steve looked concerned. "I'm fine, I promise," Percy lied. He wasn't fine, but we don't have time to unpack all of that.

Everyone else eventually woke up, and they ended up just having cereal that day. There was a collective unannounced agreement that this was to be a lazy day, except for Leo and Calypso who had decided to go to Camp Half-Blood. They had gotten Festus out of the building and onto the roof somehow, and started saying good bye.

"I better see you two again soon," Percy said, "and Leo, don't go dying on us again."

"Aw, come on. You're not still mad about that? That was soooo yesterday," Leo joked, though the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Yeah, I am," Percy hugged him and Leo and Calypso (who had received a full set of mortal daggers from Nat and was looking pleased about it) hopped onto the newly repaired Festus and soared off to the direction of Camp.

"I've got to get a dragon like that," Tony whispered under his breath.

"I hope Camp doesn't kill him. Again," Percy announced.

"What do you mean again? Why would they kill him?" Natasha questioned.

"Leo died saving us. He obviously came back, using the Physician's Cure no doubt. He probably went and got Calypso then was planning to go back to Camp only to crash. That's where I found him," Percy explained. Tony nodded.

"While we were fixing Festus he told me about the Seven. I didn't tell him they had... you know. But they all sounded like great people," Tony said fondly.

Percy felt his throat closing like he was about to cry. He probably was. He told himself to hold it together, that he should hide it from them, but his body didn't seem to agree. Once one tear fell, many many followed.

"Perce... Oh god. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought them up," Tony groaned. Percy just shook his head to gesture that it wasn't his Tony's fault, that he shouldn't have started crying in the first place, but he couldn't seem to talk through the tears.

He was annoyed with himself. He could cry in front of Leo, sure. They were good friends, they had both known the Seven. They had both been part of the Seven. They knew what the other was feeling, so they couldn't blame each other. But these guys, they didn't know them. The Seven, that is. The Avengers didn't know how amazing they all were, the adventures they'd gone on together.

"Come on guys, let's go inside. Let's watch some movies, we have nothing else to do," Bruce said, then put a hand on Percy's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Percy nodded. I'm fine, he thought to himself. Just fine. I'm fine, I'm fine. Fine.

They then continued to watch Star Wars, not including the prequels, Rogue One, or Solo. They ate at least two bowls of popcorn each, taking breaks in between movies to make more.

Percy spent most of the time distracted. He was curled up on an armchair, thinking about the demigod half of his life. He wanted to go to camp, but there were too many memories. Until he felt like he wouldn't burst into tears as soon as he saw Thalia's tree, he didn't want to return for now.

He wondered how they were going to beat Tartarus. And how was he going to rise to power anyway? If he had all of the monsters on his side, how were they going to win and not bring the camps into it?

He told himself firmly to NOT think about that, not now. Just focus on the movies, not on how stressed and anxious you're feeling about yet another war coming. Don't think about all your friends, about how they would know what to do right now. Don't think about how you're going to have to walk into this battle alone, with nobody by your side. The Avengers can't help, or at least, they shouldn't. And if they do, you wouldn't be able to save them. Like how you didn't save the rest of your friends. Don't think about any of it.

The movies were good, although the fact that (SPOILER ALERT) Luke and Leia were siblings? Percy didn't see that coming, and was deeply disturbed by it. (IS OK SPOILER IS GONE)

They soon after ordered pizza and played a game of Unstable Unicorns (A/N A highly entertaining game of players creating unicorn armies against one another. If you haven't played it I very much recommend it).

"HA!" Tony yelled, standing up and laying down a card. "Queen Bee Unicorn. No more Basics for you!!!"

"NEIGH! I FORBID THEE TO LAYETH DOWNETH THAT CARD!" Clint shouted back, slamming a 'Neigh' on the unicorn.

"I am sorry to tell you Barton, but 'downeth' is not a word," Thor pointed out. Clint waved him off dismissively.

"Sir, the pizza is here," Jarvis interrupted.

They all agreed Nat, who had the most unicorns, had won that round. The pizza was good, but they didn't eat very much due to the fact that they'd eaten loads of popcorn only an hour previous.

Soon after, Percy bid them all good night and walked down to the pool to sleep. He was yet to be questioned about it, though he'd gotten several weird looks because of it.

He fell asleep almost instantly, sinking down to the bottom of the pool, and was glad to have ended the day positively. Therefore, it was unsettling how that night he didn't suffer from the torture of Tartarus.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Third POV

Percy walked up to the main floor, deep in thought. He hadn't been visited by Tartarus, which he was incredibly grateful about, but it was suspicious. Tartarus wouldn't just pass up an opportunity to torture him without a reason.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't see Steve enter the kitchen and when he said something, Percy leapt up, spun in Steve's direction, and drew Riptide, pointing it at him.

"Hey! Percy!" Steve exclaimed in surprise.

"Steve! Oh gods, I'm sorry. I was just thinking," Percy hurriedly explained, capping Riptide and putting it into his pocket.

"I'll just... I was going to make some french toast," Steve said, gesturing to the kitchen. Percy nodded and sat back down at the table.

Steve went to the kitchen and got out the eggs and milk and started making breakfast. He wondered what Percy was thinking about so intensely that he hadn't noticed him walk in. Percy was one of the most attentive people he had come across. The fact that he had been startled so much that he had drawn his sword worried him.

"So... What were you thinking about?" he asked, trying to break the ice.

"Nothing, really," Percy lied.

"Yeah, like I'm going to believe that," Steve mumbled under his breath. They spent the rest of the 30-ish minutes of cooking and eating in silence. Percy stared out the window and Steve continuously glanced in his direction, worried. Whatever Percy was thinking about had to be important for it to be taking his whole concentration, but maybe it was just his ADHD he'd mentioned before.

The sunrise that morning was also quiet. They watched as the sky became an orange, to red, then blue. They descended the stairs back to the main floor and sat at the dining table.

Percy was still thinking about Tartarus, of course. Was there a way to prevent it? What if Percy... turned himself over to Tartarus? Would that make him stop the war? He didn't have any alternate plans... he'd come back to it.

Who would fight? No, he won't think about that right now. He'd also have to come back to that. He needed to know when and where Tartarus would strike first, or at least, next. Around Percy, to shake him up mayhaps? Or away from Percy so he wouldn't have to lose all his monsters (because let's be honest, no petty monster attack is going to survive Percy freaking Jackson).

Surprisingly, Tony was the first (besides Percy and Steve) up. He strolled into the room, snatched up three pieces of french toast and plopped down next to Percy at the table.

"So Aquaman, what's new with you today?" Tony asked, shoving some food into his mouth as he did so.

"Aquman? Really? Wow. That's such an original nickname, however did you think of it?' Percy sarcastically remarked, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Nicknames come to me naturally, isn't that right, Capsicle?" Steve only looked up from the paper he was reading, gave a look that said just agree with him, it'll make him shut up then continued reading.

"See? Even the old man agrees with me. So, Sir Water Guy, whatcha thinking about? Tony asked, propping his feet up onto the table.

"Nothing," Percy answered.

"I had a break though last night. Have you guys ever thought about this: everything is either a llama, or not a llama. Think about it, everything. Ever. Either it is a llama, or it is not a llama," Tony explained, gesturing around to everything with his french toast flopping around in his hands.

"Wow. That's really something. So, you're saying that I am... not a llama??? And llamas are llamas? Geez, that's amazing." Tony frowned at Percy's sarcastic remark.

"You're making it sound dumb, it's way deeper than that. Think..." But Percy tuned him out and instead stared at the blank TV screen, focusing again on the upcoming war.

Tony snapped in front of Percy's face, getting his attention. "Hey man, you totally zoned out. As I was saying, llamas, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, fascinating. Listen, I'm going to go train. I'll see you later," and with that, Percy ran off.

"Where's he going?" Bruce asked from the doorway.

"Training. He seems... off today. Did he say anything to you, Cap," Tony turned to Steve, curious what was up with Percy.

"No... but he has been acting weird this morning. He almost attacked me when I started talking to him. Something's on his mind, something he's not telling us."

\---LINE BREAK OF MAGICAL DEMIGOD POWERS---

The day dragged on with nothing really happening. Percy spent most of his time in the training room, even if he wasn't doing anything. Natasha and Clint joined for a while, but they didn't bother him to which he was grateful.

The team was worried. Percy'd been avoiding them all day, and when they were all together, he didn't say anything. When it was dinner, Percy sat away from everyone else.

"Who's going over there?" Bruce asked, looking at Percy.

"I don't think he wants to be disturbed," Tony said.

"I know that, but he has to be thinking about something really important if he's been this shut off," Bruce explained. Thor nodded in agreement and walked over to Percy.

"Young hero, would you please enlighten us in what is going on in your head?" Thor boomed, and Percy blinked and looked at him.

"Sorry, I didn't get that. What'd you say?"

"What've you been thinking about all day," Clint provided.

"Oh, it's nothing. Really," Percy lied.

"You keep on saying that even though it's super obvious that it isn't nothing," Nat pushed.

"If it was really important I would tell you. I'm fine, nothing's wrong" Percy lied, again.

"Perseus-" Thor protested, but was cut off but Percy.

"Don't call me that. Please. And it's nothing." Though none of them liked it, they let it go.

\---THE LINE OF THE BREAK---

When night fell, Percy debated on sleeping. He didn't know if Tartrus would just not come again, or if he would come bearing a message, or maybe he'd come and hurt him more since he didn't visit last night.

He decided on sleeping. He figured that not sleeping had more downsides than the other, so he went down to the pool. How wrong he was.

\---LINE BREAK *INSERT HAPPY FACE*---

The Avengers watched as Percy left the room. Once the door to the stairs shut, Tony spoke up. "Something's wrong."

"Yeah no duh," Clint said, rolling his eyes.

"He's refusing to talk about it. There's not much we can do, and we have no idea what's even wrong in the first place," Steve ranted.

"I'm worried he's going to do something stupid," Bruce said, still staring at the door.

"Well, what do we think it might be about? I'm guessing about that Camp he goes to. Maybe he got some news from them or something?" Natasha theorized.

"What about his friends? He did just lose like, what, six of his closest friends? And one of those was his girlfriend. Maybe he's just in mourning," Steve said.

"Maybe..." Clint began, but looked clueless. "I don't know. I'm with Nat, maybe the Camp was attacked or something."

"Tartarus," came a voice from the shadows. All the Avengers jumped up and turned in the voice's direction, only to see Loki.

"Oh, it's just you," Clint glared, and they all sat back down.

"What did you say, brother?" Thor asked looking intently at Loki.

"Tartarus," he repeated. "He'd been thinking about Tartarus. At least, that's my guess."

"And why would that be?" snarled Clint.

"It's just an idea. Tartarus is waging war on us after all, and Percy is one of the two living survivors to ever go down there and make it out alive. I'm saying that if you were somewhere horrible, somewhere unbearably horrible that monsters can't bear it, and that place, that person started attacking your home, wouldn't you be... out of it?"

They were silent for a while, taking in this new perspective. Thor broke the silence and stated, "You seem to understand him quite well."

Loki simply responded, "someone had to be controlling me when I was attacking New York. Let's just say they weren't the nicest about it."

Thor looked like he wanted to know more about what had happened, but Tony started talking. "So what has he been thinking about? I mean, Tartarus makes perfect sense, but he can't just be thinking 'Tartarus Tartarus Tartarus' over and over."

Surprisingly, Jarvis interrupted their theorizing session. "Sir, you may want to go down to the pool."

"What? Jarvis, why?" Tony asked, baffled.

"Percy seems to be causing quite a scene," Jarvis replied. There was a moments hesitation and then everyone walked uneasily to the elevator.

Percy was lying at the bottom of the pool, asleep. The team entered the room, only to be soaked instantly. Waves were splashing around everywhere, knocking things down and raging into mini whirlpools.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?" Bruce yelled over the noise.

"LOOK!" Natasha shouted back, pointing at the end of the room where Percy was sleeping in the pool. The carefully made their way in that direction, and tried to get a closer look. Percy's expression was hard to make out, but for what they could see, he seemed to be in pain.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM?" Tony yelled to the whole team (plus Loki) wanting to be able to help Percy. Loki looked like he wanted to say something, but stayed quiet.

"WHAT? WHAT IS IT?" Tony asked/demanded Loki, seeing his face.

"I THINK I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING. I NEED TO GET DOWN THERE."

"AND HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO DO THAT?"

Without saying another word, Loki looked tentatively at the water, then dove in and down to Percy.

Tony yelped. "WHAT DOES HE THINK HE'S DOING? ALL HE'S GOING TO DO IS GET HIMSELF KILLED!"

Loki seemed to be struggling to get Percy out of the water. He slowly carried him out of the pool and laid him on the floor. He pressed his fingers on Percy's temples and closed his eyes. The water slowly calmed down to smaller and weaker waves.

"What's he doing?" Natasha demanded, turning to Thor.

"It looks like he is entering Perseu- Percy's mind." Thor answered. None of them looked to like this response.

Suddenly, Percy sat up and gasped. Loki sat back and looked tired.

"PERCY! Are you alright? What happened?" Steve bombarded him with questions. Percy only lied back down, wincing.

"Hey guys... how're you doing," Percy asked, avoiding Steve's question.

"Are you injured?" Demanded Bruce, seeing Percy wince.

"No no no, I'm fine," Percy assured, trying to get up swiftly but ended up stumbling onto Bruce and leaning heavily on him.

To tell the truth, he'd been visited by Tartarus, and it wasn't... pretty. Lots of torture. Certainly the worst he'd had since physically being there, and that was saying something.

Bruce half dragged Percy to the medical bay, everyone else trailing after them.

"What even happened, Perce?" Bruce asked once he tried to gently lay him on a bed.

"I'm fine Bruce, just let me go to water or something. I can heal myself," Percy tried to convince him.

"But you were already in the water. You don't seem healed to me," Tony contradicted.

"Fine, you got me. But really, I'm fine. I've had worse," Percy said.

"It doesn't matter if you've had worse; that doesn't make this as bad as it is," Nat remarked. There was a pause, then, "How worse?"

"Well... I bathed in the River of Styx. I was poisoned by a scorpion when I was only 12. I've been knocked out plenty of times. And I mean, there was the whole Tartarus torturing-" Percy cut himself off quickly, noticing his slip up. He hoped they didn't hear what he'd said, but their expressions said it all. He blanched. "Forget that."

"Wait-" Tony began

"I said forget it," Percy interrupted.

"No, Percy-" Steve protested.

"Forget it, okay you guys?" Percy half yelled, trying to sit up, but having to lie back down. There was silence and Percy shut his eyes, silently cursing to himself. The Avengers all looked to each other.

"Percy..." Bruce said gently.

"Just. Forget it, " Percy said weakly. The team shared heart-broken looks. How do you tell someone hey, it's okay, we only want to make you feel better about being tortured! without sounding at least somewhat heartless? Just saying 'it's okay' wouldn't cut it. So they didn't say anything.

Bruce gave him some pain killers and they all left him alone. None of them slept, however, they just couldn't, so they watched movies. They watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Frozen, Les Miserables, the Hunger Games, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. So yeah, a strange selection of movies, but they needed to watch things they'd already seen a thousand times before and those were all movies that had been watched at least once a month for a few years now.

After the (almost) ten hours of watching movies, it was almost nine in the morning. Percy had joined them somewhere between Frozen and Les Mis and when they finished, he ran off to his room without saying anything. The team watched as he left. They didn't know what to do.

"I'm off to train," Natasha announced and Clint and Steve followed her to the elevator. Bruce and Tony left for the lab, and Thor went off to Asgard to report how Loki had been behaving.

The Avengers had seemed to forget about Loki. He was free to be alone more now and free to roam the building. They didn't do it on purpose, they just didn't pay attention to him anymore. Thor and Percy were the only ones to notice when he was there or when he was absent.

He wasn't complaining; he could do without withering glares from Natasha and Clint or disapproving looks from Steve.

Since everyone else was gone, he decided to check on Percy. When he knocked on his door, he could hear a "Go away, I don't want to talk." From Percy.

"It's just me," Loki responded. 10 seconds later, the door opened.

"What." Percy demanded.

"I was just bored. Everyone else is doing something or other, and I didn't know what else to do."

"What do you want to do?" Percy asked, gesturing or Loki to come into his room.

"I'm not sure. I just didn't want to waste anymore time staring at the wall or learning new knife tricks," Loki shrugged.

"Well, I was just trying to catch up on reading," Percy glanced at his trash can, which had several books thrown into it. Loki looked at it and raised an eyebrow.

"I got a little carried away. Why do people have to use such big words?"

Loki chuckled and walked to the bookshelf. There were all sorts of books, from Harry Potter to A Beginner's Guide to Astrophysics. He picked one off, titled The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and walked to a chair by the desk. He opened the book and began. (I don't care that they redid the order, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is still the first book of the series.)

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy."

"What are you doing?" Percy asked uncertainly.

"Reading to you. You were trying to read, so I'm doing it for you," He then started up again, "Once there were four children..."

A few hours passed, and Percy finally understood people's desire to read. If he could read without getting splitting headaches or if he could understand the jumbled up and jumping letters he could see, he'd totally read more often.

At noon, Tony burst in and dragged them all to get lunch. As they were eating their shawarma, Percy looked around. Across from him were Steve and Natasha, on his left were Loki and Tony, and on his right were Bruce and Clint. Currently, Tony was telling the others about his llama break though.

Percy looked across the street to a small park. He watched children running around and screaming for the fun of it. He wished there was a park where he could run around and scream without getting judged.

As he was watching, he noticed something. The shadows near one of the trees by the park became heavier. Suddenly, Mrs. O'Leary jumped out, Nico riding her. Percy leapt up and tried to get over to them.

The team had also jumped up and gotten into battle stances, thinking he'd seen a monster to kill. Well, he technically had, but Mrs. O'Leary was a good hellhound.

Once Percy finally made it across the busy street, Nico ran up to him.

"Nico, what-"

"Percy. It's Camp." Nico said, and with that, hauled Percy onto Mrs. O'Leary and they ran into the shadows, the teams' cries of 'WHAT THE HECK? PERCY!' disappearing behind them.


	13. Chapter Twelve

Third POV

Mrs. O'Leary dragged Nico and Percy through the shadows, and when they arrived on the other side, they were at Camp Half-Blood. There were people running around and yelling, and Percy could see monsters in the forest attacking the campers.

"Nico, what's going on," Percy asked, and Nico pulled Percy to the infirmary while he talked.

"Monsters are attacking. Tartarus sent them, most likely, but we were caught completely off guard. Camp Jupiter's also being attacked, but we're trying to help each other out as much as we can."

Inside the infirmary, the Apollo children were frantically trying to get all the wounds tended to. Will Solace caught sight of them, and ran over.

"Percy! Good thing you're here. How'd you get- Nico, you didn't shadow travel, did you?" Will demanded.

"No, he didn't. It was Mrs. O'Leary. What's happening? Where's Chiron?" Percy questioned.

"In the Big House. But Percy, we need you badly on the field."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay," Percy breathed, and he ran out the door to where there were the demigods were battling monsters. As soon as he entered the field, the monsters stopped and the demigods around lowered their weapons, looking round questioningly.

Perseus Jackson, came the voice of Tartarus from all around them. I'm so glad you could join the fight, I thought you wouldn't come.

Percy stood, momentarily paralysed. "What do you want?" he shouted, trying to make his voice not shake.

Now is not the time to discuss what I want, but no matter, if you really want to know. I want demigods gone. I want my monsters, my children, to be able to roam the Earth freely. I want humans dead. I want you to suffer, to watch as your friends die out, as this world crumbles to dust, I want you to understand what you have caused when you defied me. With that said, the monsters retreated.

There was a stunned silence, and then, mutters of questions broke out. The questions ranged from eight year-olds asking where Percy Jackson was and could they meet him? to sixteen year-olds wondering if this meant another war was coming and why the monsters just left like that.

Percy ran to the Big House to see Reyna, Thalia, Grover, Nico, Will, and Chiron already there. He crushed Grover in a bear hug, punched Thalia in the arm, and gave a fake salute to Reyna before facing Chiron.

"So..." He began, but was cut off by Thalia.

"That was Tartarus, wasn't it. He's waging war, and I'm betting you even knew, and you weren't going to say anything."

"Thals... Please understand. Yeah, that was Tartarus and yeah I knew about this. And yeah, I wasn't going to say anything but I couldn't. We just got out of a war, and we lost so many and I couldn't, correction: can't imagine losing any more," Percy ranted.

"Yeah, there goes our plan on keeping Camp out of it," Nico mumbled, but everyone heard.

"Oh, so you knew too?" Thalia rounded on Nico.

"I was just visiting Percy when there was an attack, and that was when we first heard about it! We decided that Tartarus was only interested in us, seeing as we're the only living survivors of, you know, him, and Camp wouldn't be a target so we wouldn't even mention it. We didn't want to cause any more terror than there already is," Nico said, weakly throwing his arms in front of his face in defense. Thalia just stormed out of the Big House.

"What are we to do?" Reyna asked.

"We defend ourselves. It seems as though the attacks will be coming to us, so there's no need for any quests or otherwise. We can join forces with Camp Jupiter if need be. Percy, I assume you'll be staying with your parents?" Chiron prompted.

"No. I'm staying with some other mortal friends of mine. I can fight the monsters around there with them, they know about everything and... yeah."

"Yes. Well, keep an eye out. Thalia and her hunters will be available if worse comes to worst, and Grover, I trust you have the nature spirits on our side?"

Grover nodded.

"Well then. Will, make certain the Apollo cabin will be prepared for anything, and Nico... Just for now focus on getting your health back." Chiron said as Grover and Reyna left.

"I'm fine," Nico protested.

"No, you're not," Will corrected.

"Yeah, I am," Nico countered, and the pair left the building bickering.

"Chiron, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about all this," Percy began, but Chiron dismissed the apology with a wave of his hand.

"You did what you thought best, and I thank you for thinking of the camp. But you need to worry a bit more about you; don't go into wars with nothing but yourself. I understand you don't want to see anyone hurt but you shouldn't sacrifice yourself for the Camp's sake."

"Noted. Thanks, Chiron. I should get going, my friends are probably freaking out." Percy said, and started walking to the armory.

\---LINE BREAK OF AAAAHHHH I SHOULD BE DOING HOMEWORK RIGHT NOW BUT INSTEAD IM WRITING FANFICTION---

Tony was freaking out. They were all just having a swell time, him enlightening the others with is llama break-through, when Percy totally just jumped up and started walking into the crowded street.

Obviously, they all followed him, but he was determined to get to the other side, where Tony saw the emo kid from earlier, Nico, he believed, riding a huge creepy dog. Percy then proceeded to get on the dog and they ran into a tree and disappeared. What the heck. Now, they were all back at the tower, trying to figure out where Percy went.

"I still think they're at that Camp. It's the only logical explanation," Natasha said.

"But did you see the dog? That was a straight up monster. And I didn't trust that Nico kid, he was too shifty. I'm guessing that he kidnapped Percy and brought him to Tartarus or whatever," Clint provided.

"I'm with Nat. Nico seemed trustworthy enough. I wouldn't really trust him, but Percy obviously does. That has to count for something..." Steve added. There was a minute of silence while they all thought about it.

"How long has it been since he... left?" Bruce asked.

"Not entirely sure, but at least an hour. It has to have been, because we came here and then theorized for about forever, so-"

"Just say an hour," Natasha interrupted Tony's blabbering. After ten more minutes of silence, there was an opening of the door from the stairs and Percy walked in, carrying a bag on his back.

"PERCY!" Practically everyone shouted in relief.

"Hey guys, sorry for disappearing on you all like that. There was a camp emergency," Percy explained.

"HA! I was right." Nat yelled out in triumph, pointing at Clint who looked annoyed.

"What was the emergency?" Steve questioned.

"Nothing we couldn't handle. I got you guys stuff," Percy said oh-so-subtly changing the subject. He plopped down the bag and started rummaging through it. He handed Natasha 2 daggers, Steve a large disk, and Clint another 2 daggers. Bruce was given a huge club. All of the weapons were made of a bronze-ish type metal. (A/N I didn't get Clint arrows because I figured that Camp would need all the arrows they could get and you can really only use them once)

"What are these for?" Clint asked, twirling a dagger expertly.

"They're made of Celestial Bronze. That means they're able to kill monsters." Percy explained.

"Why didn't I get anything?" Tony protested.

"Your light beam things work on monsters. Thor and Loki also didn't get anything, so stop complaining," Percy said, but winked to show he wasn't all that serious. "Another cool thing about this metal is this. Ready?" he asked, taking out his sword and pointed it at Clint.

"Woah woah woah," Clint said, holding his daggers up in return.

"Relax," Percy said, and then made to stab Clint in the stomach. They all cried out in shock and protest, and Clint tried to block it, but Percy was faster. However, the sword went through Clint, not leaving a scratch on him.

Percy only sheathed Riptide, and Clint looked panic-stricken down at himself, patting is body unsurely.

"Am I dead? I just got stabbed. How am I not bleeding if I'm dead?" Clint asked.

"You're fine, my sword's Celestial Bronze. It can't hurt mortals. That's the cool thing I was showing you!" Percy said.

"So... I can stab Clint all I want?" Natasha asked, a smile slipping through her otherwise passive expression. Percy just smirked and nodded.

"Sorry to interrupt..." Bruce interjected, gesturing to his huge club, "but what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Oh. Right, sorry about that. I couldn't think of anything else to get you, so I just grabbed a club that I found and figured that if you... you know, hulk out then you could smash things with it? I guess." Bruce only nodded in understanding.

"Also," Percy continued, glancing at Nat, "Please don't stab me all you want, because these do actually work on me. Yeah, just so you know."

"Got it," Steve said. The others seemed to understand/agree as well. They ended up just throwing their new weapons in their rooms near their superhero uniforms.

The rest of the day, Percy spent most of his time in the training room. He felt like everyone was still looking at him all pityingly, and it was driving him insane.

Dinner that night was grilled cheese sandwiches. They devoured about 5 loaves of bread and more than their fair share of cheese.

"What if I add blueberries?" Percy mentioned off-handedly. The others looked at him as if he was insane. "What? It was just a thought. I like blue."

"I mean... why not?" Tony asked, looking at Bruce, who was making the food. He shrugged and got the blueberries out.

After determining that it was a mistake, they decided to get more experimental.

"What if I add Doritos?" Natasha suggested.

"They would burn, wouldn't they?" Clint pointed out.

"Not if we do it correctly," Tony said, getting the Doritos from the cupboard. "If we add some halfway through, wouldn't they get mixed with the cheese and get a little cooked, but not burned?"

"How about Lucky Charms?" Loki asked from the end of the table. He'd gained a fondness for the cereal, being the first midgardian breakfast food he'd tried.

"And Poptarts as the bread?" Thor boomed.

At the end of the whole experience, the kitchen was a mess. There was every food they had out on the counters and the smoke detectors had gone off several times. Luckily enough, the fire department hadn't come. It would be hard to explain that it was only grilled cheese and that there wasn't any other reason the whole building is filled with smoke.

The only reasons they had to stop was because a) they had gotten to trying to deep fry sandwiches made of bread, mozzarella cheese, Apple Jacks, and paprika in coffee, b) they had all thrown up way too many times for it to be healthy in any way, shape, or form, and c) Pepper turned up and forced them to stop.

"I'm going to be sooo sick tomorrow," Percy groaned, sitting on the couch, clutching his stomach, though smiling through the pain.

"Tomorrow," Clint said though quickly rushed to a trash can to throw up, then continued, "we're not doing anything. I'm calling it a stay-at-home-sick-all-day day for all of us right now."

Percy couldn't see the rest of his friends, but he heard moans and saw Tony's thumbs up sign from behind a chair.

"I'm going to be constipated for the rest of my life," Bruce grunted, standing up and stumbling to a chair to sit down.

Pepper walked in and surveyed all of them sitting and complaining about how horrible they felt. "So, I'm assuming you've all learned your lesson?"

"What lesson?" Tony asked, "it was totally worth it."

"I second that," Nat mumbled from the floor behind the couch.

"So do I," Thor belted, burping rather loudly afterwards. Pepper only shook her head and started taking care of Tony.

Percy made his way to his room and fell asleep quickly, waking up 6 hours later at 5 AM.

In the kitchen, Steve was up, though he was only sitting at the island with coffee in one hand and checking the back of an Ibuprofen bottle with the other. He noticed Percy walk in and slid the bottle over to him.

"Here. Take as many as you need. I've already taken about 5."

"Wow, healthy," Percy said sarcastically. He then laughed a bit and stated, "Captain America just slid a bottle of drugs over to me urging me to take as many as I desired."

Steve rolled his eyes and just chugged his coffee. Percy started with 2 Ibuprofen and swallowed them down with a cup of water.

"How'd you sleep?" Steve asked hesitantly.

"Fine. The usual."

"Which is...?" Steve nudged.

"None of your business." Percy retorted. Steve shut up after that.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I just don't want to talk about it," Percy added after a few minutes of silence.

"It's alright. I wasn't planning on making any breakfast today, were you?" Steve asked.

"Nah. I just want to watch as many movies and shows as I can while I'm at least partially concealed from monsters. What's your favorite movie?"

"I'm from the past, remember? I don't really know. We can just choose one from Netflix and hope it's good," Steve said, moving over to the couch and trying to operate the remote.

"JARVIS, what movie do you recommend?" Percy announced to the room, and JARVIS replied, "Based on your most recent viewings, I recommend the Pixar movie The Good Dinosaur."

Over the timeline of the movie, the rest of the Avengers had gotten to the living area in some way or another. Tony practically crawled in, and upon seeing what they were watching, launched himself into the closest armchair (that Thor was already occupying) and stayed, eyes glued to the screen. Nat stumbled in, threw up, and ended up lying on the coffee table. Clint randomly fell out of the ceiling and just decided to stay. Bruce was the last to appear, coming from the hallway and walking straight into the door before remembering to open it to get through.

Needless to say, it was a very... pathetic day at the Avengers tower.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Third POV

The next few days were more-or-less the everyday life of Percy Jackson. Monsters started attacking more frequently and in increasing numbers. Every time before he would join the fights, he would give silent prayers to almost all the gods that the mist would cover him from mortal eyes, and so far it'd been fine.

They were just arriving back to the tower from the most recent monster attack when Percy noticed a trail of blood. It was leading to a back alley, and naturally, Percy followed it.

"Wait!" Clint yelped and held Percy back, "are you seriously going to follow some blood into a creepy backstreet? That is basically the beginning of every horror movie. Ever. There's probably a guy with a chainsaw and mask waiting just around the corner to chainsaw your head off."

Percy disregarded the warnings. He shouldn't have, but he did. He turned the corner and the team collectively held their breaths. After a moment, Natasha strolled to the wall, edged along it, then peered around the corner. She sharply turned around and uttered the words they all dreaded to hear: "He's gone."

Loki POV

It had been over a day since Percy had gone missing, and the Avengers were feverishly looking for their absent team member.

Tony and Thor were flying all around New York. Bruce, Nat, and Clint were all searching the security cameras and seeing if there was anything that could even remotely relate to Percy on the news or social media. Steve was out trying to figure out what else to do since technology still confused him too much, and Loki was twirling one of his daggers while staring out of the large window. None of them had slept since Percy had been captured.

Clint dropped his phone on the table he was sitting at. "This is so stupid. Why can't we just... I don't know..."

"If you're going to suggest fighting Tartarus then that's going to be a no," Steve interrupted.

"Yeah, I know it's a really stupid idea, but what else can we do?"

"What if we contact his friends?" Loki spoke up from the window.

"And how do you propose we do that," Clint scoffed.

"I can try to reach out to his pegasus and then he can go get Nico and Leo. I mean, they're Percy's friends and they should know that he's been missing. They might be able to help."

"You can do that?" Natasha asked, slightly surprised.

"I have a special connection to horses. I could understand Blackjack before, so I was thinking I could call him like how Percy did," Loki explained.

Bruce, Clint, Nat and Steve all exchanged a look. It was their best option and they knew it.

"I don't like it," Clint muttered.

"Okay Loki, do what you have to do." Steve said, nodding in reassurance. Loki nodded back and walked to the elevator. The roof seemed the most fitting for this mission.

"Alright, how do I do this..." Loki murmured under his breath to himself once he was on the roof.

Ehhh... Blackjack? Loki thought as loudly as he could trying to project his thoughts to the pegasus. There wasn't a response, so he tried again. Blackjack. It's Loki. I'm... a friend of Percy Jackson. He's in trouble and I need to contact his friends. Could you help?

There was a few seconds where Loki waited, but Blackjack didn't make any sign he'd heard Loki's calls. That is, until Loki saw a black dot flying towards him at an extremely fast pace. Blackjack landed and Loki sighed a breath of relief.

I still don't trust you, Blackjack's voice (thoughts?) rang in Loki's mind, but if Boss is in trouble, you'll need help.

Does that mean you'll take me to his camp? Loki asked.

Sure, but the you now owe me at least eight donuts.

Loki hopped onto Blackjack's back, and Blackjack thrust his wings down and they were in the air. Within minutes they were dropping down on a large hill that Loki assumed was the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. Seeing as he finished his job, Blackjack left.

Loki walked up the hill and below saw a camp with cabins in a 'U' shape, a volleyball court, a field on strawberries, and much much more. He made his way down and someone walked up to him.

"Who are you?" the kid asked. He had blond hair and was wearing an orange camp shirt, beach shorts, and flip-flops.

"I'm looking for Nico di Angelo and Leo Valdez," Loki answered. The kid squinted at him and crossed his arms.

"And why do you want to see them?" he commanded, advancing a little bit. Loki was caught off-guard. The fierceness of this kid was weirdly intense.

"Will!" Loki heard a shout from behind the kid, now named Will. He looked over the Will's shoulder and saw Nico di Angelo jogging towards them. "Loki, what are you doing here?"

"You know this guy?" Will asked, turning to Nico.

"Yeah, he's one of the Avengers. He's nice I guess. He like stabbing people, from what I've heard."

"Oh! Well then, welcome to Camp Half-Blood!" Will chirped, spinning back to Loki. Loki was thrown by how quickly Will went from 'who are you and what do you want I WILL KILL YOU' to 'oh hello! I'm a ray of sunshine 😊'

"Loki, why are you here? What's wrong with Percy?" Nico demanded.

"We need to find Leo. I think he should come with as well, he also knows the team." Loki said.

"What? Loki, why are you here?" Nico insisted.

"Percy's missing. He's been gone for about two days and we can't find him. We were wondering if you and Leo would help with finding him."

Nico sucked in a breath. "Of course we'll help. Will, go get Leo."

"Why don't you?" Will retorted, though he'd already started walking away.

"He's so annoying," Nico sighed, though Loki saw him watch Will walk away for a little longer than was necessary.

"So that's Will?" Loki asked quietly, nudging him a little. Nico instantly punched Loki in the arm rather hard and glared, face slightly pink.

"So what happened. How did he go missing," Nico asked, changing the subject defiantly.

"We had just gotten back from monster fight and Percy noticed a trail of blood. He followed it around a corner and when Natasha checked if everything was alright he was gone. We've been scouring the web and flying around the city, but he's nowhere to be found." Loki explained.

"Gods. That idiot. Getting himself kidnapped again?" Nico went on to rant in a language Loki didn't know.

Will eventually came back, Leo Valdez following closely behind. "Loki? What???"

"Leo. Good. Listen, apparently Percy was an idiot again. He got himself kidnapped and the Avengers need our help," Nico summarized for Leo.

"What? I mean, I'll help but what?"

"Okay then. Seeing as Blackjack has abandoned me, how do we get back?" Loki asked.

"I can-" Nico began.

"NO." Will instantly.

"Will," Nico protested.

"NO." Will answered, still not letting Nico even finish his thought.

"Fine. No shadow traveling. Could we take Festus?" Nico suggested, exasperated.

"Sure. I'll go get him ready right now," Leo said and ran off.

\---LINE BREAK OF DEAD MEMES (WOW) (SUCH LINE)---

Riding Festus was an experience Loki didn't need. He didn't fancy being very very very high in the air with almost nothing holding him from falling off of a giant metal dragon flying over New York City.

They landed on the roof of Stark Tower. They slid off of Festus' back, Leo pressed a button, and Festus turned into a suitcase.

They entered the main floor and saw that Tony and Thor had returned.

"Brother! You're back! Ah, Nico di Angelo and Leo Valdez. It is nice meeting you once again." Thor greeted them, but he was the only one.

"You two here to help us find Percy?" Tony asked, pointing to the demigods.

"Percy's our friend. My cousin. Of course we're helping. Even though he's a Seaweed Brain, I'd die for him," Nico answered. Leo nodded in agreement.

"Where have you been looking?" Leo asked, walking over to a table they had set of a map of New York City.

"There." Tony said, vaguely gesturing to the map dejectedly.

"Sorry where? You kinda gestured... everywhere."

"Everywhere. We've searched every street and every surveillance camera in the entire City," Tony sounded exhausted.

"You guys haven't even considered the fact that he could be anywhere in the world?" Nico asked, and all heads turned to him. "Tartarus took him. That's a given. Who else would have? But Tartarus can teleport anywhere. Percy could be... He could be in Tartarus again."

The team exchanged looks. They had talked about it, but only briefly. None of them wanted to think of it. It sucked almost all the hope out of them when they did.

"Then where do we look? What do we do?" Bruce asked, looking to anyone.

"We try to talk to Tartarus," Steve spoke, looking away from the New York City map he'd been staring at. "Maybe we could make a deal. Give him something in return for Percy."

"I don't think that would work. He wouldn't ask for something or someone else, he'd ask for us to stand down or something. He doesn't want the demigods fighting him, so he'll ask for us to stop and then give back Percy," Nico explained.

"We could at least give it a try, right?" Bruce insisted.

Nico didn't say anything, closing his eyes and moving his hands down his face. Leo spoke up. "What if we just IM Percy? It might work, and then we can find out where he is."

"IM? What does that mean?" Clint asked.

"Iris Message. We need a rainbow and a drachma." Leo said, and the team looked severely confused but worked on making a rainbow. They eventually got a spray of water and started up a rainbow and Nico chanted the magic words, throwing the drachma in as he did.

"Show me Perseus Jackson, most likely in Tartarus or... possibly somewhere else," Nico finished off, and the team, at least, the mortals in the team, watched in amazement as the rainbow started to swirl. They then saw Percy's face which looked burnt, as if he was somewhere very hot. Loki saw Nico swallow and start calling out Percy's name.

"Percy! Percy. Can you hear-" Just then, the connection started to splutter, Percy blinking out of view.

"NO! Come on. Dang it, stupid gods. Stupid Tartarus, stupid-" Nico went off in a tanget in Greek, probably about other stupid immortal beings.

"That was Tartarus?" Steve clarified. Nico nodded.

"Well, at least we know where he is," Nat said, looking sick. The others all nodded as well, all just as sick as Natasha.

"So... What next?" Bruce asked, glancing around.

"What if we offer to make a deal-" Leo began, but Tony interrupted. "We already said that wouldn't work."

"No, listen. What if we offered to make a deal but then back out of it? Like, we say we won't fight or something, then once we get Percy we could say PSYCH and fight anyway?"

"He's not stupid. He'll make us all swear on the styx not to fight," Nico pointed out.

"How about only one of us swears they won't fight? Then the others can and the one who swore they wouldn't doesn't," Clint suggests.

"That could work," Nico said, after thinking about it for a moment.

"Alright, who doesn't fight then?" Tony asked the room at large.

"I will," Thor boomed.

"Thor-" Loki protested, but Thor only spoke louder. "A midguardian would look suspicious, and seeing as I am a god it would be more realistic."

"Thor, we're going to need your help. You have the whole... lightning thing. We need as many people as we can get." Tony said, looking at the team to back him up.

"Actually... If it's the 'lightning thing' you want, I think we can get someone." Leo said, a small smirk on his lips even though the circumstances were grim. Nico apparently saw where he was going and shook his head.

"No. No, she'll kill us. The last time we were in the same room she'd just found out about Tartarus and it was not fun."

"Come on, I don't care if you aren't on speaking terms or whatever, Percy needs her and she's got practically a whole army on her side." Leo explained.

"So are you guys going to share with the rest of the class or...?" Tony interjected.

"My cousin. Thalia. Daughter of Zues and Hunter of Artemis. She's great and all but has a temper, you know? I don't want her blowing everything up or trying to kill all you for some random reason," Nico disclosed.

"Lets call her up. Do that rainbow thing. Like Tony said, we need as many people as we can," Clint pushed, and Nico sighed.

"Fine," he said, "But I'm not calling. She's probably still mad that I didn't tell her immediately about Tartarus. Leo isn't either." His eyes traveled around the group and fell on Nat. "You, Natasha. She's a hunter and isn't really... fond of boys. At all. So do you think you could call her?"

Natasha paused then nodded.

"Alright. We have to trick Tartarus into giving us Percy, contact Thalia and get her to help, and end up with Percy on our side safe and alive. We have a lot of planning to do if we're going to pull this off," Nico listed, becoming their unofficial leader.

"Well..." Loki said, and looked around the group. "Let's get started then."


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Nico POV

At the Avengers tower, there was chaos. Controlled chaos, but chaos all the same.

Nat had called Thalia and she had agreed to meet them at the tower. The rest of the hunters didn't want to be in a room of *gasp* 5 men??? But Thalia didn't seem to mind. The hunters ended up camping out in some forrest or something away from civilization. Thalia was spending her time over there for now.

Leo, Tony, and Bruce compiled their brains to try and form a fool-proof plan, Clint occasionally dropping from the ceiling vents to point out something in their strategy that was weaker than other parts.

Thor, Loki, and Nico were trying to learn as much as they could about what they could expect from Tartarus, figuring out the best ways to defeat which monsters with what.

(A/N Okay so bear with me here. I know this isn't all that realistic but I'm not that smart with strategy and stuff so sorry if it's bad idk what I'm doing)

"Okay. We have a plan. All we need now is to contact Tartarus. Everybody is clear on what we're doing?" Nico asked, taking control of the situation. There were confirmations from the members of the team, and Nico nodded.

They went down to a less-populated area of New York, more on the outskirts than the actual city. Nico just sat, and they waited. His idea was that eventually a monster would come, and seeing as they had two gods and two children of the big three. They were practically a beacon of HEY LOOK AT US! to any monster within a 4-mile radius.

Just as he'd expected, a massive Hellhound (not Mrs. O'Leary) bounded from the shadows not ten minutes after they'd stopped. It ran straight at Nico, but he stood his ground. When the beast came close enough, he raised his sword and pointed it directly at the monster's face so it had to stop quickly or else it would impale itself.

"Thor would like to speak to Tartarus. Get him." Nico said, not too loud for it to seem like he was yelling, just loud enough for it to be dramatic.

The Hellhound didn't move for a solid 30 seconds, and neither did anyone else. They were all anticipating an attack, but the monster slowly backed away and presumably traveled back to Tartarus. Thor ushered the rest of the team into an ally-way so they would be hidden.

Thor Odinson. I have heard all about you, came the chilling voice of Tartarus from all around them. How nice of you to contact me. What is it you needed?

"You have a friend of mine. I am prepared to make a deal to get him back," Thor shouted, glancing around to find where the voice was coming from.

Ah, yes. I heard about how you and Perseus Jackson were comrades. What do you offer in return for his freedom?

"I will stand down. I won't fight. But only if you give Perseus Jackson back, alive, right now."

There was a pause where everybody held their breaths. This was it.

Swear that you won't fight, Tartarus answered, and the team sighed in relief. It had worked. But then he continued. You and your friends. They will not fight. None of them, no demigods will fight me, no mortals will fight me, no hunters will fight me, no one. I will reign without rebellion. If you do this, I will release your hero in two hours. It is difficult, getting mortals from me alive.

Thor stood there, looking slightly terrified. Nico was having a stress-panic attack as quietly as he could. How were they supposed to be able to get Percy back? This plan was going to get them all killed and Percy stuck in eternal torture.

"I swear none of my friends nor any of the demigods will fight," Thor spoke, and everyone stuck in the ally started, if they hadn't already, having a mental breakdown. Thor then continued. "I swear to it on my mother's life."

\---LINE BREAK OF PRETENDING THAT THOR'S MOM IS ALREADY DEAD (YAY)---

"What the ACTUAL HADES Thor!?!?" Thalia yelled as soon as they were safe in the Avengers building. Nico too was in a fit of rage. Leo was fidgeting viciously with a weapon that he apparently made while in the ally, glaring at Thor. "You know what you just did? You just guaranteed our loss. Unless, of course, we want to kill your mom! Which, what the hades kind of oath is that?"

"A smart one," Loki said. He was looking at Thor with, if Nico didn't know any better, admiration. "Our mother died not that long ago. It wouldn't have reached the ears of anyone in this realm yet, so Tartarus wouldn't know of it so he wouldn't have any reason to doubt our deal."

The Avengers took this in. Nico's mind was whirling. They weren't going to lose. They could fight. Percy was coming back, and they were going to win.

"Shoot man, now I feel bad for kinda hating you for a solid 15 minutes," Leo said, looking side-eyed at Thor. The rest of them mumbled in agreement.

"It is alright, you don't have to be sorry. It was understandable if you thought we would lose Perseus or have Tartarus rule midgard," Thor reassured, though Nico still felt bad.

"So. Now we call my hunters, correct?" Thalia asked, and Nico nodded.

"Yeah. Right. We really just need the hunters and Percy... we can still fight and everything, so I guess that's it. We're almost done." Nico said, looking around.

"I'll go IM them," Thalia said, running out of the room.

A short 15 minutes later, the Hunters of Artemis were crammed into the living room of the Avengers Tower. They were all standing as far away as they could from the men in the room, giving anyone who dared to look at them the stink eye.

Leo suddenly broke the eerie silence. "How long has it been?"

"Only an hour. We still have to wait another hour until we get Perseus back," Thor responded, and Leo looked back down at the machine parts he was fiddling with anxiously.

\---LINE BREAK OF ANXIETY BECAUSE I HAVE ANXIETY HELP AHHHH---

It was a very long hour of waiting. No words were exchanged. No sounds were made. Except for one time when Bruce sneezed and all the hunters immediately drew their bows and almost took his head off.

Eventually, Natasha spoke, "It's time to go."

They all filed out of the room, Leo running up to the roof to get Festus. He'd figured they could use him in emergencies during the inevitable battle.

They went back down to the street where Thor had first made the deal, and they waited for Tartarus or Percy to appear.

Thor Odinson. We made a deal not to fight, correct? Tartarus's voice rang out, and everyone jumped.

"Aye, we did," Thor stated, making a great effort not to show his nervousness.

The large crowd of demigods and mortals in the shadows would tell a different story. Tartarus said.

"They're only here to make certain that you provide your part of the deal," Thor answered.

Of course I will. Said Tartarus.

"Then hand Perseus Jackson over," Thor demanded, and a form materialized several yards (one yard is about one meter to all you metric people) away. It was Percy.

Now. get your hero and let my reign on Earth thrive in peace, unless you want your dear mother to perish. Tartarus threatened.

"We can't let you do that," Tony spoke, flying down from his spot in the air. The rest of the group saw that as their queue to come out as well. Even though there wasn't any form of Tartarus physically there, they could tell he was getting irritated and the slightest bit intimidated.

You will really chose to defend this weak little planet in exchange for your mothers life? Tartarus hissed.

"I am sorry Tartarus, but you should have checked to make sure that deal was still valid. I am regretful to say my dear mother passed away just a few months ago." Thor said as he wielded mjolnir.

During this series of events, Nico had run over to check on Percy's barely conscious form. Nico found him severely battered and bruised. "Percy!" Nico said, shaking him a little.

Percy cracked an eye open slightly. "What... where am I... earth?"

"Yeah, Seaweed Brain. It's good to have you back. Listen, it's a little urgent, but we're kind of in the middle of trying to kill Tartarus so if you could help that'd be super nice of you," Nico said, helping Percy up.

"I'll see what I can do, but seeing as I have just been trapped in literal Hell for the past few days, I don't think I can use most of my powers. Just saying."

"That's fine, we just need all the help we can get," Nico reassured. They grinned at each other and joined ranks with the rest of their mini-army, Percy leaning heavily on Nico.

"What's been going on?" Nico asked Thalia.

"So Tartarus is about to wage complete war on us right here and now. So be prepared!" Thalia said, giving both Nico and Percy a cheery thumbs up. Just then, there was a battle cry from Thor and everyone surged forward. Monsters materialized from nowhere.

The fight was on.

The Hunters were taking down monsters the fastest, their arrows piercing through monster bodies like butter.

The Avengers were using their weapons to kill anything in sight, and were holding their own. Nico caught sight of Loki looking ecstatic while throwing knives all over the place, killing almost as many beasts as the Hunters were.

Leo was in the air, riding Festus and swooping down to set fire to large groups of monsters.

Nico and Percy were pulled apart from each other by the growing numbers of beasts. Nico keep his usage of his death powers to a minimum, not wanting to get drained first thing. Or perhaps it was the adorable face of Will scolding him 'Doctor's orders,' that kept him from doing anything too straining. Either one.

He was battling a huge evil cyclops when he was pinned down. He covered his face with his hands, waiting for the inevitable death, when the monster burst into golden dust. He looked up, startled to find Thalia smirking above him. "Don't go dying on me here, Death Breath."

"Whatever, Pinecone Face," Nico retorted, and they started fighting back to back.

Nico glanced around, checking to see if Percy was doing alright. He spotted him, surrounded by a pack of hellhounds, trying to fend all of them off. He looked to be exhausted, too exhausted to use any powers.

Nico watched, horror stricken, as a dracaena came behind Percy and stabbed him straight through the chest. The dracaena cried out with joy as Percy looked shocked, dropping to his knees.

Nico couldn't control himself. He only felt rage and sorrow and panic as he screamed. All the monsters around them in a three mile radius dropped dead. Plants withered and died as Nico ran to where Percy was laying on the ground, blood seeping from a wound in his chest.

Nico heard cries all around them, shouts for help echoing throughout the area. Nico looked down at Percy, kneeling before him and tried putting pressure on the wound. Percy took Nico's hand and looked him in the eye. "Nico... I'm sorry. Bianca-"

Nico shook his head vigorously. "It wasn't your fault. Please Percy."

He was shoved unceremoniously out of the way by Thalia, who was crying.

"Percy, Seaweed Brain, not you too. You can't die, first Luke, then Annabeth and Jason, and now-" Thalia broke off, and Percy made a pained laugh.

"Who knew you cared so much?" He coughed.

"PERCY!" It was Leo this time, looking horrified at Percy's bloody body.

"Guys... I guess I'll see you in Elysium. Not too soon though," Percy said, winking faintly. He coughed weakly and closed his eyes.

Nico got up and stormed to Bruce. "You're a doctor, right?" Bruce nodded his head slowly. "Then. Fix. Him. Bring him back." Nico demanded, though he knew all hope was lost. He'd felt the pain of Percy's soul leaving his body and traveling to the Underworld.

"I'm sorry, Mr. di Angelo. There's nothing I can do."

"No. NO!" Nico yelled, and the ground shook, small cracks opening around his feet.

"Nico, stop," someone shouted. Nico looked over to see Loki, dejectedly holding a knife at his side. "He's gone. We can't do anything," A single tear fell down Loki's face, and he quickly wiped it off. "We can't do anything." He repeated, softer this time.

\---LINE BREAK OF I'M SORRY NOT SORRY HAHAHA---

Third POV

The funeral was the next day. Percy's death had come down hard on everyone at camp, especially the ones who'd actually known him well enough. All together? The reactions weren't pretty. Several walls have holes from where people punched them, and Nico even had a black eye from Clarrise.

The burial shroud made for Percy was beautiful. It had all the blue flowers the Demeter cabin could make on such short notice and an expensive teal fabric embroidered with waves and a trident. Percy's body laid in the middle.

There were speeches given, but nobody could bear listening to them. No one could accept that Percy Jackson, the Percy Jackson, was gone. He couldn't be gone.

The Avengers all stood to the side. Thor and Loki were standing side-by-side, deciding their rivalry needed to be over. Clint even shook Loki's hand, saying he wasn't all that bad and if Percy could stand him, then maybe he'll give it a try. Natasha was standing alone, arms crossed and tears streaming down her face. She didn't want the others to see her like this.

Bruce, Steve, and Tony were standing in a group. "The kid shouldn't have been fighting, he should've stayed off to the side."

Bruce chucked a tiny bit. "His birthday was the 18th. It's the 20th. I don't think you can call him a kid anymore; not that he liked it in the first place."

Steve shook his head and a tear fell down his cheek, remembering the first instance when they met Percy. "We only knew him for 13 days. That's less than two weeks. Think about that."

Across the camp, Nico was reuniting with Will Solace. Nico didn't even hesitate to hug him and bury his tear-streaked face into Will's chest. Will looked surprised to say the least, yet very pleased that Nico could trust him enough to show him his vulnerable side.

The speeches were just finishing up and it was time to burn the shroud. The bonfire was huge, and it was horrible. If you hadn't been crying by then, you were now. That was it. That was the last of Percy Jackson anyone would see.

In the Future...

Will and Nico finally became a thing. They ended up marrying and adopting a little girl and boy, the girl named Bianca and the boy named Percy.

Loki became an official part of the team. Once you got past his stabbing obsession, he was a cinnamon roll. He and Clint actually became the best of friends, becoming the prank masters of the Avengers.

Thalia and Reyna eventually got it on. Everyone had been telling them to, and Thalia just didn't know how to come about addressing it until Reyna got so fed up she just kissed her in front of the entire Roman Forum.

Visits from the Avengers at Camp became an annual thing. Leo introduced Tony to the rest of the Hephestus cabin, and he was instantly bombarded by requests of upgrades and other pieces of equipment that might be useful during fights. Natasha and Calypso were best friends, Natasha teaching Calypso ways to beat up boys and showing the most effective ways to intimidate boyfriends into doing what they said. Loki and Blackjack had a special connection none of the campers, nor the Avengers, could understand. Loki always brought donuts to make up for the time he called Blackjack for a ride, and Blackjack acted like he could care less but, well, anyone with donuts is an instant friend.

Percy POV

It was dark. That's all that I could tell. Dark and tingly. Huh. Wasn't I just stabbed? Why don't I feel any pain?

All of a sudden, there's a bright light and it's very warm. What was happening?

"Perseus Jackson? What is he doing down here?" I hear from my right, and I look but it's too bright to see anyone. There are other words said, but I couldn't discern what they were saying.

The tingly and warm feeling became more intense and it became brighter, and all of a sudden I'm on a beach? What the hades is going on?? Where's my team? Loki, Tony, Nico, Nat...

Then I see someone. But it's impossible. He's dead.

"Frank?" I yell, and the person turns around. And there he is. But if he's here, then...

"Percy? Is that... Percy!" Frank asks, first confused, then happy, but I run past him, into the cabin that's behind him. I look into all the rooms. I see people, friends, people who I love, but I need to find her.

I dash out of the house and look frantically around. She has to be here. She has to be.

But... wait... there. On the beach, ankle deep in the water, watching the sunrise in an orange T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts, there she is. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, her blonde hair still with the princess curls.

I run as fast as I can. I need to see her, be with her again, feel her in my arms, alive and breathing. I tackle her with a hug and we fall into the water, her letting out a small scream.

"WHAT THE- Seaweed Brain?" I hear her ask, and in response I press my lips to hers. I'm giddy with joy, as I speak the name I've longed to say since the day she left: "Annabeth."

The end


End file.
